(thisisnota) songaday

hi!
i miss songaday.

but i fear it'll be awhile until i start another. for those interested in songaday in particular, scroll on down. there are 90 songs for you to listen to. listen up. get down. tell me what you think.

what have i been doing? lots of stuff. perhaps the most exciting is uncle monsterface. it is the rock band.
please check us out at
uncle monsterface's nifty new web page!
uncle monsterface is making lots of awesome songs. several of them were born right here in songaday land. and then my very smart rock partners make them way better. go to the above-mentioned web site to hear our new and exciting re-creation of lionfist journey (and then scroll on down to hear the olde version...or vice versa...it was volume 2 #6, for the kids who are keeping score...)

and also there is a spider baby growing out of my shoulder and i am learning to make cartoons.
awesome!
yay.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #30

ta-dahh! it's goodbyehello volume three

whewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
whewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
ok.

long-winded dedication that can very easily be skimmed over:
songaday volume 3 is humbly dedicated to douglas adams.
as a small boy, i read all of the hitchhikers guide books and loved them (something i am rather proud of the small boy version of myself for). i began in the fourth grade. by the time i was in the fifth, i gave a lengthy oral book report about "the restaurant at the end of the universe" which involved a bulging sack of props. there are all sorts of things that form you when you are young. for me, i always knew douglas had been one of them, along with great stuff like the kids in the hall, the simpsons, they might be giants, the tick, jim henson, my best friend jeremy and his family, tee vee, tv, television,the list goes on and on. but somewhere along the line, i think i forgot just how much he had done to my mind. (for my mind.) i recently decided to re-read all of his books. i finished the guide series (incidentally, i have no idea why i used to say that the books fall off at "so long and thanks for all the fish." read them all, they're increasingly brilliant). anyways, i was reading "last chance to see" (his lesser-know non-fiction book about endangered species. the copy isn't mine but amy mae's mom's or brother's...i'll give it back...i prommmmmise...) anyways, i was reading it on the train, and then it suddenly made me cry. not just because i'm a big baby (though i am), but because it hit me in the face. pow! right in the face. he's dead. i don't think i grieved properly when he died. so now i am, and this is for him.

slightly less long-winded thanks:
first thanks to everyone and anyone who listens ever. in the past, present, or fuuuuture. and extra thanks to anyone who has told me thoughts or encouragements or anything. i know folks are out there, because the internet tells me so. i even like to imagine that there are a few sneaky folks out there whom i've never even heard from, listening away, headphones clenched, hunched over their gramophone in the night kitchen. but extra special thanks to two folks who i am wicked most proud to hold as friends: ms amy mae silvia and mr andrew wade. you guys have kept listening, and kept encouraging, and kept telling me things. and it means a heckuva damn crap of a lot. yeesh, andywade ended up with a song about him and a song sung by him (two of my favorites, incidentally). so bigtime thanks, everbody.

and that's it. i'm not sure what happens next. i have a feeling it will be a bit longer before i do it all again. i mean, i'm sure i'll do it again, but there really is some other stuff i have to hack away at. i want to make some cartoons, rock out with monsterface, make some sandwiches, kiss girls, go to dinner, sleep and bathe regularly, other crazy ideas...

it has once again been an awesome experience. i am as surprised by these songs as you are. every day is a crazy adventure. and i'm really proud. every iteration of songaday has been totally special.

so yay. yay for you, yay for me.
come see uncle monsterface tomorrow night at o'briens.

i'll miss you while i'm gone.
HELLLLO!

goodbye.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #29

for all the poker players: (bad) luck of the draw

an auspicious number 29.
bearing certain resemblances to #21's "out like a lamb". equally owesome to mr tom waits. i'm just enchanted by this gritty and downtrodden feel. when i'm not making something obscenely upbeat and catchy, that is. it is new to me and very fun.

several peoplefolk said to me, "so, all done with songaday, eh?" and i said several times, "anope. 30 days every time." my month. sorry for the confusion.

tomorrow we say goodbye and farewell. thursday we rock o'briens. friday we get on a plane.
viva la doinglotsofstuff.
i won't start waxing all maudlin and thankful and thoughtful until then. but rest assured i will, complete with an anti-climactic final song.

until then,
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #28

have fiscally responsible fun with: the grown up song

i think it is rather clear that i am amusing myself quite a bit at the end, here. for anyone keeping track, there is some pretty uncharacteristic vocal overimpedance, but i just had to keep those performances. let's see...i'm very excited for thursday's monsterface. did i mention that show?

and tired. but good tired, you know?
so. here's how it falls out. songaday ends march 2. monsterface rocks march 3. then i travel to portland oregon with my best friends to see my best friend. for a vacation! yay.

just two more, gang. i can safely say that, for me at least, it has been a very exciting songaday thus far. but we're not done yet...

i know your secret,
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #27

an aquatic life with: scuba bear

i know it is a topic that everyone is writing about, but i just had to put in my two cents.

while making this song i had to stop recording several times because it was making me laugh.
i am suddenly all about crazy funny screamy punky songs again. crazy olde songaday. and i really like the middle, too. i need more songs where i just make funny noises.

what does MARCH 3 equal?
UNCLE MONSTERFACE at o'brien's in allston! yay, come and see. rumor has it we may be "doing the airplane."

with chocolate arms and hands.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #26

moving forward we have go!

one of the many nice things about a saturday to myself is it means that my songaday gets to be done mid-day. which means i am far more comfortable all-out screaming. which isn't to say that my room doesn't resonate with it's fair share pf whelps and whinnies aech night around 2am, it's just that i can REALLY scream during the day. i mean, this stuff would be downright inappropraite at such wee hours.

very awfully close. yes yes.
are you with me out there, people who listen to things?

let's take the rock and roll on down through the home stretch.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #25

watch out for avian flew: do the airplane (do the aeroplane)

phewww...almost there. already making me misty. this songaday has rocked my butt off. yay.

don't forget - uncle monsterface. march 3. 8:30pm. o'brien's in allston. rockrockrock.

tonight is the first official pokernight in nigh on a dog's age. wish me luck.

and i'd truly appreciate it if while you listen to this song, you please do the airplane.

everyone knows how...
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #24

rollin in from the pasture is milkcow

congratulations on the shortest songaday ever yet.

i told you i'd make a song called milkcow.

sick of being sick,
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #23

target practice with: shoot me down

don't worry, it's about climbing trees, and how to get off of them.
i like summoning the bluesman inside. i want to do more of that.

first of all, let's all countdown to uncle monsterface at o'briens on march 3 - 8:30pm. count with me...

and in case you were worrying, i'm still ucky-sick. i got better in the morning and now i'm sicker. ayuck. singing songs like that isn't so conducive to healthiness, either. but songaday is songaday. note the clever use of my incredibly stufft up voice.

a side note: i think several sweet people took yesterday's "delicate ego" comment as a fishing line for compliments. or something. it wasn't intended as such. but thanks to any and everyone for kind words and encouragement (all the time...and maybe people just happened to be feeling nice at that same moment). anyways, it always means a lot. as does honest criticism. if i may get back on my soap box for a moment, i would preach that if you are reading/watching/experiencing any of this magical world of blogdom, vlogdom, bjournalhood, or anything for that matter, take a moment to tell the person on the other end what you think. it almost never falls on deaf ears. again, this isn't me fishing, it is me preaching.
(oh will you pleasepleaseplease ADORE ME already!)

i think we may be officially on the home stretch here.
hopefully i will be less sick on the morrow (wind).

with mutual adoration and a medicine head,

lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #22

avian flu presente: two ducks

back to the small.
i am sick. despite this (or because of it), i actually created this entirely other crazy and grande song. that i didn't like. so then i made this. and i don't really know what to make of it. perhaps because of the nyquil.

and then also i made an alternate version with a chorus singing "look back and quack" at the end and then a professor going,"fredericka! you must never look back! i saw that!"
but then i uploaded what i thought was that version and it was this one, this more paired down one. and i liked it better this way. so there you have it.

look back and quack.

needs help getting zees,
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #21

for mr. h. s. thompson: out like a lamb

i didn't know hunter s thompson had died when i started making this song. specialfriend-pete broke the news. the song was already all written (but not performed). and it felt completely proper to dedicate it to him. a crazy fellow who influenced me. bye hunter.

a nod must also be made to mr tom waits on this one. thankfully he's still with us. and i'm sure it is clear that he is an influence on this particular songaday.

can i take a minute to puzzle (again) over this mysterious rss feed? ryanne and steve garfield were compelled to get me rolling with this dealy (for which i still thank them...). inasmuch as i can tell, it allows people to "subscribe" to my blog and then automatically get it. right? (or else it is a german built flying car with tires that are also radios.) anyways, all it is doing is wreaking havoc on my delicate ego. one day i'll have 17 people. the next, 5. was it something i said?

okay, fine, my ego isn't that delicate...

RADIO TIRE!

rock on forever to the sound of freedom and free things such as birds, bicycles, and carnie folk.
and if you have a chance, take some lsd. do it for hunter.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #20

direct from maine, a very special: lemon meringuetang

ha ha! the commitment of the songaday!
so: here we have the third-ever songaday guest artist. none other than mr andywade himself.

here is how it went down: we got the bus schedule wrong because of stupid president's day. so i'm stuck in maine for an extra day. stuck is a poor choice of words. i'm here and andywade is awesome. the only problems were work and songaday. so we went into emergency procedures. fixed work (thanks donna!) and recorded the immediately legendary lemon meringuetang. which also happens to be the world premiere of the band bearing the same name. we recorded it using one of those awesomely sketchy computer mics that look like a game show host mic and one of the standard windows audio tracking devices. despite a few attempts, we were unable to do anything besides track one live recording. but it is pretty wicked awesome. there was one recording where the accordion got accidentally super-distorted, which sounded totally amazing. but we couldn't replicate that. but now i want a distortion pedal for everything.

most of the brilliance of this nugget lies with the wade. which in its turn made me really want to take on the role of "producer" for other folks. i'd love to take another crack at this song with all of my regular computer-stuff at my disposal.

okay. i'll take a long bus ride and return to regularly scheduled songadays tomorrow.

lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #19

buy now! miracle ball

early morning song so that i can get on a bus to visit maine and the human running theme of volume 3, mr andywade.
have a happy saturday, and don't go to ikea without me.

lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #18

for the the wistful kids: spaceship aeroplane (write your name)

i think that you are a bird today.

lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #17

scififancondotcom presents: the spoonda wars

i really wanted to say something about the fact that the 5000 year spoonda wars contributed very much to the booming economy of both civilizations. but then i got too excited about the "systematic attack..." you know how it gets...

i also wanted to do a song called "milk cow." maybe i'll get to it later. i was also thinking about doing a song about how cautiously excited i am about the next generation of video game consoles. go nintendo! make the revolution live up to its name... if ANYONE can get me into E3 this year i will write them an album of songs singing gloriously of their virtous awesomesness and battles and greatness and anything...

ahem...anyways...

i really enjoyed making the crazy crunchy drums on this one. i think i'm truly starting to bend the will of this magic computer program.

rock rock rock until the break of dawn or else a little bit before then,
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #16

go team: the thrill of defeat

annnnnnnnd - we're over the hump! yayyyyyy!
i like to make songs every day.
i also like the spring, and look forward to it.
and how are you today, fair listener?
are you wearing a merry jacket? have you danced any proper jigs of late? mayhap you've hugged a jug, or else donned a bonnet? welp, if you haven't, get to it.

less has been more lately for songadays. and i like that just fine. sometimes it feels to me like i made a song that is 8 minutes long when it is in fact 50 seconds. don't get me started about time again.

lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #15

food lover's are my people: leftovers

ayup.
weeeeird.
weirdo.
i think i made two songs at once...
it sort of became all about that ridiculous falsetto...

bliddy bop.
poop-a-doo...
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #14

take this, saint valentine: heart

an absolute nod to the brilliant young gentleman ed in the refridgerators they have a valentine's song called "heart of blood," and i love it and them. and i miss them. a further nod to the gentleman who i can never nod at enough they might be giants (their song "mammal")

i just won a bunch of money at poker. jason and i have a poker blog i will write about it there. it was completely crazy.

and then also i think i really like this song. which is fun.

okay, happy heart smooch poopies. if you are in love, i hope you are having awesome valentine's sex right now. (i suppose i hope that for just about everyone, in love or not... i mean, i hope you're not in an emotionally bad relationship and still having awesome sex. but if you are, the least you could do is be having great sex.)

labllabla,
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #13

back to the: future life

harumph.
hi howdy sleepy boy yes. good nice sunday of talking and thinking.
tirednow.
songsleep.
songaday still crazy. somewhat back to something or other... ?
ethan said,"this songaday is the best yet," which felt nice but doesn't feel true to me as i'm in it right now. but that is all okay, too. regardless, if you are ever new to songaday i strongly encourage you to go backwards for perspective. cumulatively, this is song #73.
wow.
damn.

anyways, i want more control over...some part of the mix that i don't have control over...
i'll work on it and let you know.

lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #12

in the age of convenience we bring you: penguins lie (betwixt the stubben)

i'm sorry? what? did someone mention more eccentric small songs...
currently obsessed with miniature clarity...

i'm not sure where these are coming from, precisely. they are my little nuggets of song.
rest assured my brain will inevitably counteract thesecompressed notions with some ornate baroque nightmare of elation and supersizedom.

lovemarty

not songaday but monkeyhouse

it is rare for me to disrupt the purity of one songaday to the next. but i wanted to tell anyone who is out there to go see monkeyhouse tonight at CMAC .

CMAC happens to be where i work, as a matter of curiosity. and i wouldn't usually use songaday to promote it. seperation of church and state and all that. but this show is fabulous art made by fabulous folks. it is thoughtful, beautiful, and has a waltz on roller skates and a pinchy stick. and tonight is its last night. and if you tell them songaday sent you, get the member discount of $15! tonight only...

but don't go there to stalk me. because i'll be out drinking and/or at home making tonight's song.

rock on people of the listening world, you'll hear a songalito tonight.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #11

seriously, here is: cat and frog (onalog)

well then. that was quite possibly one of the quickest songadays ever. ah, what a merry and childish jig. listen, i just couldn't resist the temptation, okay?

in a bog.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #10

oh boy howdy it's: two little triangles
who doesn't like an eerie dirge?
um, i think volume 3 might be winning most eccentric. go volume 3!

in direct deifiance of ryanne hodson , i am going to continue to write bunches about these songs, my butt, and my penchant for disaster movies (not true).

here is what i think is funny (besides everything). yesterday i was musing about the music i've been "studying" throughout the day, wondering about its effect on the day's song. well, today was rufus wainwright, more mates of state, elliot smith, and a little queen. with a dabble of they might be giants. what we clearly have in song form is something that owes much more to
A) the residents
A N D
B) rasputina

hey, so it goes in rock and roll.
speaking of rock and roll, go check out the nice folks at:
http://www.bandweblogs.com
they are putting together a new music blog looker-upper.

so, here we have another song in my long line of anthropomorhized shape songs. some are here on songaday, others are elsewhere. circle saw the star, lullabye for triangle, shape song, star parade. here is the latest. simple shapes creep up all over my drawings and writing, too. what can i say, i am a big fan of component parts.

we are currently also obsessed with salt and pepper flavored potato chips. eat them.

please tell me what you think of songs and i promise to write back if humanly possible.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #9

kablamo, here is: helloagain

hey! so, wow, a songday hasn't been this hard to make in i can't remember how long. there was one full-on completely composed and structured false start, and several more vocal false starts within this smaller structure. oddly enough, yesterday's song took only half the time. and today's ended up being one of the musically simplest and shortest. and there is a strong likelihood i'll look back and like this one (as opposed to a few other dark horses that were mired in struggle). it is funny, because i went in very excited to make something very poppy. all day i've been listening to ben folds and michael jackson. and there you have it.

which is an interesting segue into a point about this here songaday process. part of what i have been doing is really hitting myself with much more music than usual. i haven't done this so purposefully in past songadays, and i'm not sure why i suddenly wanted to now. but i've been listening intently and dissecting quite a lot. the abovementioned were today's contributors. thus far there has also been a lot of: mercury rev's new ep (one song in particular), the mates of state, the postal service, xtc's apple venus volume 1, and bjork's medula. probanly something i forget. more to come, i'll keep you posted.

ouch, that one hurt.
but i still love songaday lots.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #8

long overdue: summaluncha
(very overtly for andy wade)

you'll remember andy wade from yesterday. as the best ever. well, he still is, and today is his birthdae. long ago, i posted a contest. " tell people to sign up for my e-mail list and i'll make a song about you." not enough people responded. but dr wade did. and here, at long last, is his song.
when is jonny cruz's birthdae? damn, i'd have to learn how to play some real sexy bass for that song (he also "made good" on the contest. AND he's wicked sexy. for rizzle. i mean, andy wade's sexy, too. lots of my friends are. but i'd hump jonny cruz's spit. )

gross.

okay. yay. for songaday.

happy birthdae andywade (go look at his awesome journal blog via the link and discern the true meaning of summaluncha, christamas, partying hard, orc potions, and the afterlife)!
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #7

brooooing: bending bird

i am on the phone with andywade. he is the best ever.
today is my day off. i bought stuff.

yay.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #6

one-fifth through: anymore giants

ah, sweet sundays.

this song gets a bit muddy, but i like some bits. i kept trimming parts for clarity, but in the end it still feels unwieldy. i really like the idea though. to spoil: it is about a race of underground peoples who think of themselves as giants relative to everything else, but when they explore the aboveground in their spacesuits they find out they aren't so big. you know, perspective yadda bladda marty etc. yet another odd one. i keep saying that, i suppose.

i think it should be said that volume 3 feels much more like just picking up right where volume 2 left off. which makes sense, right? but i don't think that was the case from 1-2. and i didn't want it to be from 2-3. but then i stopped fighting that as of about day 4. and so now songs are going much faster with a lot less worry. change will come, and having the full keyboard is a big one. but i keep mentioning their oddness. which is true to me. and makes sense because by the end of volume 2 i was very comfortable making songs that were completely odd with no regard for popular opinion. which isn't to say i don't care what you think. please tell me things. and it also isn't to say that i am always making songs so that people will like them. but i feel that the seemingly random aside in volume 3 #1 that says,"and this time, i'm making it, just for me," holds true to an extent. obviously not completely, or else this wouldn't be a big olde public fprum. but you see what i mean. or else you don't. in either case, please write me about it.

go superbowl tigers of yay.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #5

climb on in our fort of clothes

phew.
we played a rock show. it was great fun. yet another odd line-up, but a good one. i was powerfuly moved by the folks who went before us: zac and sarah (winchester, i believe). just beautiful beautiful music - this sarah simply has a sensational and honest voice like no one else. i could listen to her sing anything, anytime. then we rocked our craziness, which should have been grossly inappropriate after such niceness, but i feel like we did our own rocktastic job. the show was in good olde north 175, the classroom that i spent much of my four years of college in. it felt like magic to be there again. i love being in uncle monsterface so much. these guys are just incredible.

this song. is small and quiet. partly because i feel deeply tired (not is a bad way, just in a "doing lots and lots" sort-of way which is not at all mutually exclusive from songaday itself). but this song is mostly because i had a quiet song in me today. i felt it in there all day. certainly not a stone-cold rocker nor new wave sensation. but nice. and would have been impossible without the new proper keyboard. which is real nice.

okay. sleepy. thanks for coming to the show if you did, or we missed you if you didn't and come to the next one.

i like to make songs.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #4

for the kids in the gym here is: sweatpants (for gabe)

hey wow and holy canolis. 13 hour workday. and then make a song. but then! go to the bar.
i love beer.

i love making songs.
this song is silly and crazy. for the last several days i have remained committed to trying to make the songs pretty simple and straight-up. this was the first time i think that really happened. as of right now, i like it.

okey dokey. i'm real tired. come and see uncle monsterface (the new rockband i am in) rock massart tomorrow, feb 5, at massart's N175 (alternately N181). show starts at 7:30. we rock around 9.

i sleep now, then make a song for you tomorrow. please tell me what you think, sign up for the mystical rss.

lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #3

meow for the: kittens
(for lucas)

okay, hi the songs are already weird. i don't think there is a hit single yet. but i like 'em.
ayup.

what should i tell blogville about?
wellity, there is a magical rss feed dealy now. the rumor is that if you control-click on it, it'll make the magic things occur. further rumors imply that these "magic things" are bright neon with rainbow ribbons trailing behind them. they sing songs like songs from gramophones except as sung by unruly drunks on the train.

i recommend that you try a solid bludgeoning before bed.
and that you tell me what you think of songs.

talkin bout my.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #2

dee-da-dum, here is: clever disguise
i think i am still getting the stink feet proverbially "wet."
um, some of the high end stuff is kind of harsh. i'll try to fix that...anyone know a good way to fix that? in peak or digital performer?

well. so what is funny, or let's say "interesting," is that this song is sort of glommy and serious. or something. i guess it's just that it's is about loss and deception. and i think at the least the newspaper article and to some extent popular notions lean toward the idea that i write mostly "jokey jingles." and i can very clearly see where that impression comes from. i mean, i write some pretty silly songs. and this song was not written to prove otherwise. it just came out. the point is, it seems to me that i make lots of these weird little overwrought ditties. and i like these, too. and does anyone notice that they are about glomminess? i'm sure we'll also see our fair share of robots, vampires, and bears (so please stick around for those shennanigans if that is what you are waiting for), but it felt worth noting. at least internally. and now externally.

so. this one. was tough again. i am overwhelmed with new technology. i keep going into the process very excited. and remaining so. but it is taking longer than i remember it. because i think the speed starts to pick up as i go. i really wanted to use the olde drum machine and olde keyboards for this one. and it wasn't coming together. and then i took a whole other stab and liked this. i am rambling almost completely incoherently tonight...hmmm...and it's only #2.

awesome.

anyways, see you tomorrow.
oh yeah! my cute blog buddies ( captain blog steve garfield and ryanne ) went crazy and got me all set up with an RSS thinger before i could do it right. so right now the link is in ryanne's comment from volume 3 #1. i'll try to make the button go, too. or whatever the thinger is and does. i get the vague sense that it has racing stripes and a pit team.

wiggity mackity wordup.
lovemarty

songaday volume 3 #1

here we go: volume 3 theme

i like to think that this first song keeps with the standing tradition of the first one being overly ambitious and somewhat cumbersome.
which leads us neatly into what's exciting: if i didn't already call you or e-mail you or you or you weren't drawn here because of it:
this is the exciting boston phoenix article about songaday!
so neat and awesome. so many big thanks to mr mike miliard for helping to support my irrational efforts.

so - this one was tough. it is difficult to start up again. perhaps some amongst you may note that by now it is technically february 2. technicalities are bunk here. as was established with volume 2, my days are defined by my sleeping schedule. and my sleeping schedule is godawful in its finest hours. first time around i tried to use midnight and it nearly destroyed me. (perhaps it DID destroy me...who can sayyyyyy...?)

i think this song maybe shares a lot of characteristics with the latter-day volume 2 songs (which makes sense). i like the lyrics in the middle. by the way, people sometimes say they can't understand whatever the hell it is i'm saying. whatever you are guessing is probably better, but if you ever want to know i'm more than happy to divulge...

the things (gadgets, doodads, and googaws) i didn't know i would get to help but suddenly got are as follows: a pair of super good listening headphones and a nifty midi keyboard. i should explain: throughout volume 2, all of the keyboard parts were played on my actual macintosh "keyboard." you know, the thing you type words on. if it wasn't clear already, i like certain limitations...but that one became a bit silly. so just today i got a proper keyboard that makes me able to play forty-nine black and white keys. overwhelming and exciting. the super-good headphones are a fair step forward from the taped together ones that i bought at south station. movin on up.

okay. i'm excited to be back at it. please leave comments. please go look at a million other blogs or vlogs or glogs or bjournals. please bring me a juicebox on your way back, and ignore my smelly feet.

as has been suggested by blogville (bjournaltowne) i'll try and get an RSS feed going on this here thinger...

yipes.
songaday again.
yay.
lovemarty

ps: i forgot to mention that this marks the first divergence from the orginal "songaday" melody. i just got tired of it. i already made 4 songs with it... so somehow this one became like a spy song. a robot badger spy song.

songaday volume 3 begins february 1

hi and hello.
there is a vicious rumor that a nice fellow at the the boston phoenix has written a thinger about my songaday. if that is the case - yay and awesome and thanks mike miliard!

so, if you are new to marty's songaday: welcome. and double welcome to olde friends. here is the deal: for 30 days i make one song every day and then post it here in my fancy bjournal. i did it twice before, june-july ; october - endofoctober. if you'd care to see songadays volumes 1 & 2, simply scroll down. as has been previously stated, there is a link to the left posing as an "index." it only applies to volume 1 due to my lazy butt and the things that are attached to it.

ayup. here we go again pretty soon.
what has changed since last songaday 2? i will be using new software (hopefully) that brings a lot of stuff together. in volume one i just recorded tracks into the computer. usually drum machine or casio drums and toy instruments. and vocals. in volume 2 all of the music was done in the computer via computer synth and samples and drums(all in the program reason), and then i would record vocals (vocals generally had to be recorded last due to mixed-up methodologies). towards the end i discovered the ability to do a little more processing with the vocals. before that, it was all straight-up layers, no vocal reverb or nuthin. hopefully this time i'll have the ability to do any of that in any order... drunk with power i will make terrible songs.

and the other big change is that i am in a rocking rock band now called uncle monsterface. no web site yet, but soon at the obvious url. (unclemonsterface.com). it is great. come see us on thursday january 27 at kennedys near park st and emerson or saturday feb 5 at mass art. several songs from songadays past have become uncle monsterface hits, like : you're not safe (chocula) (vol 2, day 23) or lionfist journey (vol 2, day 6) and there are lots of other new songs and puppet shows and it is great.

okay! new songaday soooon!
rockrockrock.
lovemarty

still not songaday

scroll right on down for songadays.
the link to the left that poses as an "index" is deceptive. it is only volume 1. i'll work on that.

currently all worked up with the new rock band, uncle monsterface.
it is incredibly fun.
hopefully soon you'll go to unclemonsterface.com and be delighted by colors and sounds.

there is a new song on martystuff.com - my xmas song.
expressing my overall distress with this yesr's xmas. and my love for whiskey?
hopefully that site will get a big overhaul, too.
otherwise i've been drawing and doing crazy stuff with puppets.

...
but i've got the itch.

i'm thinking february.

volume 3.

rock.
lovemarty

update (notnewsongaday)

scroll down a bit to hear songs that i made every day for awhile.

just a bit of an update:
i am thiking february for songaday volume 3.
hopefully.

largely due to the new rockband - uncle monsterface.
me and two other swell fellows, we are playing many songs that were born on this very blog, and still others songs as well. it is exciting.

we premiere at zuzu cafe in central square cambridge tuesday december 7. on a bit late - 10, i think.

then we play again at the espirit de corps basement at 44 green st in jp on december 11. this one will probably be a bit more performance rock-based.

and lastly, go and see the extraordordinary ryan hodson's (of the lobster building video fame ) new video blog at ryanedit.blogspot.com
it rocks

yay, and yay, and i miss you songaday.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #30

one more time for the kids songarepriseagain (count)

finishing, i think, like i begun. with an overly ambitious reprise that doesn't quite succeed but has a lotta heart. like songaday!

welp, volume 2 has been a wild ride. particularly this last week. it has been a crazy and rewarding struggle.

as a strange sidebar: right about when i began volume 2 i also began the final volume of stephen king's gunslinger series. now, say what you will about mr king's writing prowess (lord knows i have), but i've been with these books since i was twelve. and this final volume was with us throughout this songaday. and i loved it. filled with heart (like our RED SOX!).

so, big thanks to everyone and anyone who ever listened ever. of course. i'm not done. i'm addicted to this crazy idea and will do it agin. but give me a bit to recover again, you know. recover and rediscover some other interesting set of instruments or bits of knowledge that'll help make the next one feel new and good, too.

so, this blog is on hiatus. i'll update it periodically as relevant things occur, and then i'll start 'er up again soon enough.

but for now, i need a break.

have the greatest hallow's eve ever.

big big love. big big yay.

lovemarty
(october 30, 2004)

songaday volume 2 #29

wellity here goes house all red (already)

by dumbledore's beard that's a dark song. and the first and only song made in the morning. because i have to run to work and then right to a party rock show at 217 lamartine in jp near stony brook that YOU should come to. this song was not done with halloween intent, it just came out. and it's all dark and stuff. and that's a'okay! i have been really kicking myself in the lyrical pants lately, really trying to work stuff over. that may sound like a joke, since a large part of this song consists of me saying,"paint can," but it's true. since "sock puppet" i've really wanted some stuff that at least had some more lyrical girth in my own head.

okay!

gots to work, gots to rock. one more to go, can't believe it!
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #28

world series championship rock and roll presente sea of key

it has little to nothing to do with baseball. okay, maybe some. but i made up a baseball song at the fun rock show last night before the sox won. and then they won and then we ran around screaming. and that was after i played songs, which was great, too. but the best was the magic-power ability to throw you arms up and have all cars and people honk.

i shared this magic time with my super awesome pal andy wade, who is the best. and tonight we got sushi. goodness abounds.

so since you didn't come to last night's show (probably), the secret show is tomorrow (friday oct 29) night. jp. 217 lamartine st. right near stony brook. big halloween basharoo. i play rock songs immediately after work. like 11pm or so. all are welcome.

by dumbledore's beard!
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #27

go go go here is: bunnicula homicide

yayfun. pretty straight up vegetable rabbit italian pudding style. more hallows weenieish, too. left work early to come make song (for you). go play rock show now(for two).
rockrockrock.

misu!
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #26

by gum it's another song about birds: birds sigh

ayup, another song about birds, and it ALMOST wins longest (longest having actually been the first songaday of volume 2, laughably at just over 2 minutes. longest of both volumes is this is a spaceship , the classic volume 1 #2 ditty.). though this one sort of cheats with lots of reverb at the end.

this new one has a nicely curious structure. i am finding it tricky to make a song and be a roaring fair weather red sox fan. i make it happen. i summon the power of the jonnydamonbellhorn. it has +5 charisma.

what will be trickier is tomorrow night, when i play a rock show (9:30pm - great scott's in allston - be there to rock). i will be on at the same time as game 4. in a bar...interesting... moreover, i have to make a song at some point tomorrow. prrrobably after the show. yeeesh. so it'll be a late one. owww.

and we've almost made it to the dark tower (which is different but somehow eerily similar to both winning the world series and finishing songaday).

i am a big red sock.
marty

songaday volume 2 #25

for everyone who was in fake blood, and for everyone who saw fake blood, here is: shake that boogie (man)

i've said it before: i don't know if that song is any good, but it sure as hell was fun to make. i think we can plainly state that we have another halloweenie song on our hands. and another one of about twenty of these with the bloody a-b-a form. i think with a bit more time i could make this one pretty fierce. or with the inimitable talents of the rockingest halloween ghost band ever, fake blood featuring boo!

i like the fact that in the first verse it sounds like i said "there's a porno up in the attic." or maybe it doesn't sound that way, but i just want it to. at any rate, i intended to say "portal." instead of porno. go on. say it. "p-o-r-n-o" once again, both work.

i get excited for ghost day. it is great.

happy ghost day, don't eat the baby!
PORNOPORTAL!
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #24

go: sock puppet

right now i'm not in love with it. that might change. i wasn't loving chocula yesterday. and now i'm listening to it and thinking, "hey gosh damn, chocula rules." so who knows?

you know!

this was very hard to make.
i like that at first it sounds like maybe i'm saying "sock puppy." which is fine by me.



i'm sleepy.

red sock puppet,
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #23

ayuh. i made this song a'called you're not safe (chocula)

another kooky number.
once again i have more to say but am in a rush.
i love the song i made yesterday.
i have to go to an early halloweeny party. i am going as a sock puppet thanks to my friend joy who helped me make my dream a bizarre reality.

don't forget - i play rock and roll on weds the 27th at great scott's. early slot. bring your rock boots.

rock boots always on.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #22

so, it would appear as if i made a song called don't eat the baby

this started innocently enough.
i have more to say, but i have to go do a thing and a thing on a bike and a thing.

don't eat the baby!
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #21

songsongsong is: every day mind

tied with littleball for shortest song! i think it IS actually the shortest, because there is some lag at the end there. unlike littleball (and several others), though, i feel like this little ditty is completely complete. made to be the 56 seconds that it is.
this was fun. i feel like it breaks quite a bit with the way i've been writing. which is fun.

and fun is fun.

here are some words i wrote down to give me ideas for today's song:
aftershave
water lily
vanity
sweater
bus station

wait, that isn't true. i didn't do that.

horrible.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #20

out the auto window: the broken line (you are not alone)

soooo. sox won... i am the greatest fairweather fan of the gestalt ever. but it is hard to make a song and watch baseball at the same time....(sorry, big j, i am what i am).

at any rate...i set out to make a different song. and maybe i did. i lack perspective at this juncture. i set out saying, "simple drums. simple melody. simple song." and arguably, it is. but it's not, at least not to me right now. it is much more convoluted than i intended. yet i like it again. it just feels like this songaday is so very diferent from the last. i feel like the changes are so gradual. but i can't tell... crrrrazy... i keep waiting for another clocks . but that is silly.

it is just that so few of these volume 2 folken feel like songs i'd want to play live. but is that a bad thing? speaking of which -i'm still playing at great scott's on the 27th. come and see and let me know if you have any requests even if you can't come and see.

yay and love and rock and sox.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #19

for my very olde friends from the ka-tet of nineteen: eyes wide open

there is no connection to the stanley kubrick film that i have never seen.
as a point of reference - this song is a true story. autobiographical. i suppose many of them are. in a way all of them, even. but this one is enough so that i felt like mentioning it.

man, these songs have been all swoopy and lofty, lately. where's the stone cold rockers? eh, what're you gunna do? this one i was particularly okay with letting it do whatever the hell it wanted to. i thought a lot less about structure than usual and just did it. built up a poop load of tracks and then used something of an intriguing subtractive process. and who cares a lot?

okay, this is a crazy aside - yesterday's song. the sentence about chicken little was the last thing i wrote. a total afterthought. i did not have chicken little in mind when i wrote that song. and then i listened back to it. and well, there a rooster and cartoon music all over it. crazy undermind.

gribby.
doo-wop.
a-ding.
dong.
doo.

there's no such game as super lion king.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #18

greeeeowr, here's: laugh it up (keep on reaching)

picture chicken little trying to save what he believes is real.

songaday is officially taking a lot out of me. this is the crazy zone. i can't quite see the finish line yet, you know? but i'm feeling good about the songs, despite the strain (because of it?).

if ever there was a songaday that merits more attention, it was this one (at least to my mind). okay, there's probably been lots...but i just wanted to keep working on it. i couldn't stop a'fussin about with it. i'd like it to be a smidge longer. but it is tricky to decide that after you've been working on it for 2 hours with these crazy computer tools i'm using. which, not surprisingly, i haven't stepped away from (in the begining i said i could if i wanted to) and doubt i will (unless for an impromptu out-of-tune guitar poker singalong songaday).

but yay.
songaday is yar and yay and yarrington von yayski.

blehhhhhhh.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #17

look up and it's : from high above

sometimes songaday feels like thanksgiving. in point of fact, this song didn't take the longest to make by any stretch of the imagination (oddly trio was probably the most laborious thus far), but it was just this long focussed session. and it was fun. and then there is this small thing that only lasts a minute. i eat fast. but i love forever.

yet another song about perspective. sometimes it feels like i always write about time or perspective. goodness gracious knows i think about them very often. and the two are both grumpy cousins who don't get along with anyone else in the family. and they wear plaid. and i suppose i write kooky narratives, too. and being wistful. and glonky. and sprangly. and dromply. you tell me.

this song is some kind of technotronic mayheminski. and that sure is that. boomboomboom.

so, does anybody else know how fun the video game donkey konga is? you hit drums in order to play. so good. a golden age for weirdo video gamers (like me). i need a blog dedicated to that stuff.

glonky.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #16

today brings us to: rinky dink huroney (does the jittery skidoo)

another character narrative weirdy dealy. also another song inspired by a drawing-doodle rather than a wordy doodle. not finished at 4am, which is nice. i still feel sick, but only medium sick. which is the hardest for me to deal with, because i don't feel bad enough to force myself to rest, but then when i play i get all extra sicky. and it is double-weird, because it is light fever sick, which just makes the world double-weird. and could explain the last few songs (though probably not, when one looks at the bigger picture).

drinking juice with a chicken puppet for a hand while missing the scavenger hunt!
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #15

hi and here is fight the giant eye

okay. this is crazy for way more reasons than just the subject matter. i am not big on tooting my own horn of adversity. but here is the deal: as predicted this song got made at 3am (approaching 4 - glad i set the new rule of "my day" rather than the "clock day"). and with good reason. work (which is completely insane) was 11 hours, starting at 10am. and then straight to poker night. and though i have nothing but love for poker night and my poker night pals, i think we would all agree that we had some crazy-weird bad mojo flowing amongst us tonight (despite markwood's greathearted and bearlike hero efforts). nothing mean or really bad, just all weirdly frazzled up for us normally super poker pals . on top of that, i have a cold and a crazy fever (which probably didn't help poker or my workday). on top of that again, markwood wrote a super-riff that we were gonna make into today's impromptu awesome songaday about poker that would have ruled. but then we didn't, because i needed a ride (hopefully said riff will be revisited in a future-soon songaday).

so then i go and make some kind of ridiculously ambitious songaday. i don't know if it is any good, and i am sure that it is fever-induced (it is about fighting giant eyeballs), but it was pretty large scale both vocally and musically. and secretly i wrote music for a whole other song that i abandoned before i made this one (i do that a lot for this here songaday volume).

so there. i tooted my horn.

please toot my horn.
i need sleep.
and orange juice.
and hugs.

lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #14

marty and jimmy made super cave

you heard it right. volume 2 #14 marks the second ever songaday collaboration, this time through with none other than the extraordinary (and extraordinarily filthy) james bernardinelli
it was way fun, i love my jimmy. (the first songaday collaboration from volume 1 #29 being crazygood with dan brennan )

for the curiously curious -
i composed the drums and a teeny speck of the melody. then james played everything else. then we couldn't get his computer to record vocals or else you'd hear him yelling, too, so i took the song home and tracked vocals. but the vocals were all nice and written with the jimmy. (one of the mny things i love about jimmy is that i said,"i think this song is about a grapefruit and a psychic in an underwater underwear cave playing the super nintendo," and he said,"AWESOME!") the vocals took a record 11minutes to track. awesome. this was great fun, i love my jimmy so. there is a crazy rumor that this duo may turn into a rocking band. stay tuned fearless folk.


annnnd: tomorrow will be crazy. i won't bore you with details, but it looks like i won't get a song made until 3am or so. so just warning you. which means there won't be much yelling, because even i find it impolite at that hour.

monster face.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #13

and the little bird sings

i think it is safe to say that at about mid-way through songaday volume two i am officially all over the map. this one was great fun to make, but who is to say if it will be great fun to listen to? you are! something else that has made this songaday unique to the first has been my lack of an immediate sense of whether or not i particularly like a song. interesting.

of note: this song features a rare move for me in the form of a verse chorus repeat. i'm usually too lazy or self conscious to do that. harumph.

it is the same little bird i sung about before, if anyone is keeping track. but he is in a way different song now. this little bird has appeared elsewhere in my universe of stuff i make. this universe is becoming densely populated, and would like a comic book story to tell some of its tale. balogna the bear lives there now. there on watermellon isle.

news from the front is that i will be playing a rock show on october 27 at the fabulous great scotts in allston. exciting news.

by gum!
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #12

for the spaceship serenity here is hearts in space

another wistful shorty. so much for the gritty shorty of yesterday. i gotta go back to that gritty. i really like doing songaday.

lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #11

welp. here is the iridescent trio

let it never be said that...um...something something. okay. this is a very curious one. horrifying? it will grow on you? easily a "halloween" song, which is odd in and of itself. moreover, it took me forever to get this one going (and i'm-none-too-sure about what i finally settled on). i tried many serious and high-minded ideas with all sorts of complicated and not-so-working drum things. so i tried the opposite thing. which ended up being about a skeleton, monkey, and bear who play loud cacophonous songs on village hilltops. the featured instrument is skeleton. i think that they think that they are most welcome, though i am not so sure that this is always the case. it is mostly just the lovable yet awfylly drunk hobos who welcome them and join in on their songs. but for all the trio know, every towne is completely made up of lovable drunk hobos. regardless, if you see them, it would be wise to just give them some macaroni and sing along.

so yeah: it was tremendously hard to get today's song done. the results were sort of crazy fun and i-don't-knowish (glowish?). but that is the same thing that happened last time with eleven song . (that song has gone on to become one of my least favorites, but a big favorite of some excellent and discerning friends...) moreover, i set out with a pretty serious premise in mind. i loved bologna the bear, but i felt pressed to get something more "weighty" off my chest. shows what i know. he's a heavy bear. and i'm pretty sure it's balogna who plays the keyboards.

in hindsight, it needs a jug. a ghost jug.

coming to your village very soon,
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #10

it would appear as if i made a song called bologna the bear

ayup.
i sure do like a good long weekend. and do you know what else i like? a bear named bologna. he wears golden armour and protects the smaller mammals. it is in the cosmic design. i think.

finding things, doing things, not cleaning my room.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #9

hi howdy here's rise up (little balloon)

our bodies are robo-machines with balloons inside them.

yay for fall.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #8

today i have been bippin around

another very simple one. i keep trying things that i don't usually try that may or may not seem that way. it is hard to be very objective about the songs i make every day. but then this one ends up sounding simple and sweet. and i like it. it is how i like my days best. when i am jusy "bipping around," doing this and that. i had several false starts because i had too much time on my hands today while i was bippin around. they weren't exactly false, just not-quite-right-right-now.

how are YOU today?
it is nearly fall.
as a point of reference, at this point in songaday volume one, i made passing a vastly different and all-too-rare style of song for me.

thanksabunches for listening. wish me luck at yon poker night.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #7

proceeding alphabetically from lion to little ball

big shoes to fill, i really like yesterday's.
and if i thought i was tired yesterday, i was also right. now i am more tired. but instead of the song sounding opposite, it sounds like i'm tired. it is nice. i'd been wanting to do something with a bit of a repeated mantra and i always get too self conscious or else some other idea creeps in. well, one other small and related idea crept in here. but this song feels relatively small and quiet (for me). which is how i feel right now (not at all in a bad way). sometimes it's just what you want to do.

and tomorrow i sleep in in the deep snuggle cold. i love it. deeply.

thanks to all the all sorts of folks who've been leaving comments here and elsewhere, it makes it feel super great that you are listening. both praise and criticism (albeit constructive) are always welcomed.

snugglecold.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #6

nummmber six is lion fist journey

i am certain only of the fact that its name rules. the first song made while i was significantly tired. i don't really think it sounds like it though, other than the fact that it is pretty kooky. but they are all pretty kooky, and who am i kidding, right? relatively instrumentally sparse (by my standards, in that there is only one and not 7200 melody instrumets). fun. new wavey? i don't even know anymore....

sleeeeepy. marrrrrty. who requested a katamari damacy song? i love you. i will try to make it so. that is what captain picard always said. he would say, "i love you. katamari damacy." eerily prophetic. and i love star trek. songaday #6 from volume one was a song called don't wanna see made when i was grumpy. i'm not grumpy this time, just sleepy.

any way you want it.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #5

i am many things, but i ain't no train

this song qualifies for grossest begining ever. totally gross. weird and funny. interesting and odd. no subject matter left unturned! ayup.
i am getting antsy with this a - b - a2 formula that i keep falling on, so you might see me consciously try and muck that up a bit in the days to come.

it is well worth noting how very very different songaday feels to me this time through. still great, just way different. i definitely feel some momentum starting up again, but these songs feel less isolated. they feel like they are closer brothers and sisters to one another than the previous lot feels or felt at the time. whether that will remain true remains to be seen, and perhaps that is only in my brain.

i write about trains a lot. funny, that.

choo choo!
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #4

hey norm, let's go to the alphabeat

yay. i like this one. and at first, i didn't like. so i trashed approximately (and literally) about 40 vocal passes until i found something i liked. special thanks to the mae for convincing me to poke harder at my singing thinkings.

this was great fun. i don't know if i'll like it tomorrow, but i sure do like it now.

okay. ayup.
so how's everybody doing out there in songaday world? draw any dinosaurs lately? you played katamari damacy yet? go play it! it transcends videogamedom! i'm hungry!

yay.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #3

hi.
here is it is on

well, i don't know if it is good, but it sure was a fun one to make. i'm tired and giddy with tiredness, so that made it go from being a chore to being fun.

have i told you about the video game katamari damacy? it is the greatest video game ever. go get it if you own a playstation 2. i should write a song about it.

yay.
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #2

here is the second song called imtention

i like the name because i did it by mistake and now it is a better name and a more interesting song. short and nice. i like it, i think.

HI! welcome back to songaday! i am marty, and i am happy and crazed and unnerved to be back at it. it still hasn't quite sunk in that i'm going to have to make 28 more songs.

so i think i already laid out any new rules a few posts back before i started, but i just wanted to mention what has changed a bit in terms of how i'm making these here songs. i got a nifty new computer robot program that lets me use a lot of sampled string and percussion instruments and some quirky effects and lots of control over sounds, so that's the stuff you're hearing so far (and my voice). so far it lends itself to people saying,"sounds like the polyphonic spree" which is fair enough (and unintentional, coincidentally) and makes sense because i listen to them lots lately. but it'll probably start to get all crazy. (or is it all crazy? i never know...) who knows? at any rate, it is awesome having all of these new and nifty sounds at my disposal, but that certainly doesn't mean i'm not allowed to use any of the good ole casio keyboards and so forth if i'm moved to do so. it's songaday, so whatever it takes to get a song made.

yeeee haw.
let me know what you think about songs!
lovemarty

songaday volume 2 #1

okay. omigod.
here it is:
here we go again (songaday volume 2 theme song)

wow. yeesh. done in 2 hours. not even sure what it is. a little cumbersome and glommy. i like the begining. yay! let's do it again! lots to say about new songaday, but i'll say it tomorrow because i have to rush to play poker. wish me luck. let me know what you think.

yay yay agin and again.
lovemarty

i will begin volume 2 on october 1

songaday volume 1 index is right here

ayup.
very excited.
new fun sounds.
songaday volume 2, 30 more days of songs that i make every day, begins october 1,2004. tell all the kids. straight through to the devil's evil holiday.

the new rules: songs must be completed in "my" day, and not the day as determined by the clock. so i CAN finish after midnight, if i must. songs must be done in a day. no cheating this time. (last time i said i was allowed to cheat and "stack" songs, doing more than one in one day. i stopped allowing that after about 7-8 days, and i don't want to do it this time. it is just more interesting to see what happens when i make myself make a song in a day.)

once again, i'll try not to get all crazy at myself if some unforseeable evil stops me from making my song, but i will sure as crap do my bestest.
yay.
lovemarty

several lost songs in one day

okay.
once again: if you are here just looking for songs click here for songaday volume 1 index

so i know i said i'd try for september for songaday volume 2.
but now i know it's going to be october one, as suggested by several nice people at a bar the other night. which will finish up very nicely just before halloween debauch (doing another 30-day stint).

BUT! in the meantime, get in on the ground floor and go check out 7 songs that are basically new to you at:
lost songs from the last year with handy index and nifty comments.

okay. see you back here (all together too) soon.

everything is gonna be okay.
lovemarty

video a year

the video is made!
here is the lobster building video at the amazing and awesome ryan hodson's web site.
yay, it came out so great. i am very most excited.
more songadays soon!

big lovemarty

yeeeeesh...still not songaday

if you are here for the first time and just want to hear some songs, click here for a quick reference of the first set of songadays these songs were made one every day from june to july or so, and i plan to start up again as soon as humanly possible.

man, am i lazy or what?

i'm getting excited and prepared to start songs again.
the idea is this: that i want to accumulate some new tools to have at my disposal before i start the next songaday session. basically some new sounds. i want each set (the next will definitely be another 30-day set) to have some sort of "distinction," even if it is only in my mind.

but in the meantime! as was mentioned, i am working with the awesome ryan hodson making a video for lobster building which is coming out amazingly and will hopefully be ready soon soon soon.

and apparently that very lobster-song has appeared on zbc recently due to nice steve garfield or Captain Blog, as i prefer to call him.

and i have started making a few new songs, though i haven't posted anything yet. i am on vacation from real life work this week, so there will be much fine relaxation along with a whole bunch of project-oriented stuff, family visits, and a fun trip to an island in maine - all of which has its hand in leading up to the next session of songaday.

and last week i saw prince AND the polyphonic spree for extreme rock fun time. so good.

okay and yay.
lovemarty

stillnotsongaday

at the urging of an unnamed and unnameable colleague, i am posting to the "bjournal," despite the fact that i still have not begun songaday again. i am torn about this, and almost want to leave this space as ground for only songs, but i believe rock-music related updates are also relevant.

so: to that end...i have not made any songs since songaday. very interesting. since that time i have been on some kind of "recharge" mode. which has been pretty great. i have toyed with the idea of releasing songaday as a little cd. but in the end i think i want to do a somewhat more fleshed out cd that has some of the songaday songs (unrevised). i also want to use some of the songs that pre-date songaday (like pets ) and there are one or two more that haven't been made yet. then i will call the cd "everything is okay."

and then also i am currently working on a video for an older song i did called lobster building
i am working with the cool cats at moov lab , in particular the super awesome video dynamite queen ryan hodson.

and what of the next round of songaday?
the urge is growing and i am shooting for some time in seeptember. the only problem is a backlog of other "projects" i currently have going (including making the above-mentioned cd). but i have some time off from work leading into september, so hopefully i can get somewhat caught up.

okay - be nice and good and i'll come back with more songs soon!

lovemarty

notasongaday (yet again)

still not making a song every day yet again.
soon soon.
if anyone is still looking here, i finally updated the
songaday index page

i hope to start up again in a month or so.
in the meantime i hope to make a cd out of some of the songaday material and other stuff, too.
please let me know if you have a favorite songaday that you simply must see on the cd.

okay.
back soon enough.
lovemarty

notsongaday again (yet)

hi.
no new songaday yet.
but it is getting ready to bust open again. i need to do some other chores and write a few other songs first. i'd expect to start up again perhaps in september...

but! i do have another show:
i am playing another rock show
august 5th with Building Press, Gold and Polaris Mine at
the Midway in Jamaica Plain

they tell me i'll be on at 9:30.
in all likelihood there is some sort of a cover...
the midway is over near forest hills. right next to doyle's. come
on now, you know it!

song a day #30

all filled with mixed emotions:
songaday (reprise)

welp. hottdamn, there it is. obvious? self-referential? blungdingum?
all these things, yes.
and, i think, appropriate.

and of course this last one had to be late. sorry, i knew it would happen and couldn't be avoided. it was that or totally cheat or get up at 6am. i think you all understand the choice i had to make.

so, when i started i said i'd do it for as long as i could. it quickly became apparent that the 30-day mark (the same that i did with sock puppet-a-day) felt like the right thing to do. i also said i wouldn't beat myself up if i didn't get songs done, and it would be okay if i stacked songs in one day and blah blah blah. well, all that changed to an obsession with actually making a song every day. and the experience has been awesome. completely incredible with a wonderful response. thanks for the support to anyone who has or will listen/comment/chat/e-mail/anything.

and i can't wait for a break. and i am also sad. tomorrow, my brain will be confused when it doesn't have to make up a song. the reason i was late tonight is that there was a huge cuminating event where i work, too. a coincidence of culminations that was totally unplanned. and suddenly, as the song says, everything has changed.

i absolutely plan to do this again. but not immediately. if you already get e-mails from me, you'll hear about it. if you don't, let me know. in fact, please let me know any thoughts. it is extremely gratifying to know that people are listening and to find out what they think - so please e-mail me for any more info or with questions or stories or song ideas anything at marty@martystuff.com

speaking of which, keep an eye on my web site , which is where i will post any new songs. i definitely owe a few certain indivuduals their own songs. and i promise to make them soon, sorry they didn't pan out to be a part of songaday. the people were too great to be thought about in a single day.

and i will update the woefully out-of-date index asap.

so: thanks a wicked lot for listening to me.
i'll come back.
lovemarty

song a day #29

the kids like to rock with:
the crazy good

okay. so for the second-to-last songaday i've done something special for my olde friend, songaday. i dressed up my song and gave it seventeen dollars so that it could get new socks. which is to say, today's songaday features the first (and in all likelihood the only-unless-something-very-surprising-happens-tomorrow) songaday guest rocker: DAN BRENNAN. you hear mr brennan not only rocking the fresh guitar licks (a first appearance of said instrument for songaday) but also as the producer type of fellow on this song. employing some nifty tricks he makes this song sound all cool and crazy as recorded in his fancy and amazing rock studio. i like to pretend that it is playing while you are swimming and at the begining you come up and at the end you go back under. that's the fancy studio magic pool.

it is called "crazy good" because those are the two single words that were mysteriously written on the piece of paper in front of me as i tracked the vocals. there is another, probably more obvious name for this song that i will leave up to you to decide.

i am a bit nervous about tomorrow's song, not only because it will be the last of these first thrity, but also because i have to work at least a 12-hour day tomorrow starting at 10am. so i am not sure when it will get done. i will try my best (as the song says) to get it posted before midnight, but it just might not happen ( i always have tried to get them up before midnight every day). but i'll at least post at some point in the wee hours of tomorrow (unless the DNC traps me at my work. there are helicopters everywhere!)

okey dokey finokeys!
be as safe as you can while marvelling at the craziness during this upcoming week of madness...
one more to goooooooooo
lovemarty

song a day #28

today's song is:
I Ain't No Vampire

funny and decidedly less dense than recent endeavors. another small and modified thingy i used to read out loud. i like it. i think i've decided i like all the songadays. even "pak a jing." okay, maybe not elevensong...

yay. thanks for listening. almost there.
lovemarty

song a day #27

for self referntial afficiondoes:
love jamboree (for you)
dedicated to everyone who has listened to any of my songadays so far or ever.

fun and crazy.
does "afficianadoes" have an "e"?

getting excited and sad to finish. to set the record straight: i know at one point i said "i will do this for at least 30 days or as long as i can." or something to that effect. well, 30 days feels good at this point. i am definitely going to revisit this idea. but i want there to have been a bit of change in my method for recording and the instruments at my disposal, so that each incarnation of songaday is unique. my "pretend in my brain" plan is to try and do this twice a year. summer and winter. so in ten years i'll have amassed 600 songs. crazy. maybe maybe not. depends on lots of constraints and the will of the futuremen.

i'd like to talk about those limited means and methods for a brief moment. as an artist, i am a fan of limitations and constraints. as such, i have a weirdly limited collection and vocabulary with my musical abilities and instruments. but i like that. and i'll be excited to watch it change. so for songaday, i've been using (primarily): a casio sk-1 teeny weeny classic sampling keyboard, a yamaha psr-12 (found in the trash, the same model i took two weeks of hated keyboard lessons with when i was 10. without a power source, i use the ac adapter from my zip drive that always falls out), red skull my famous drummer drum machine (dr-770), a huge pile of toy instruments (xylophones, accordion, fluteys, mouth harps, etc etc), whatever is around me, my voice, and my supercomputer (whom i love deeply). i don't use any effects, unless it occurred in the drum machine. no vocal manipulation, just layers. no midi, just me. um, what else? this has clearly become for my own benefit... oh! where noted, the kawasaki (!) digital percussion machine. more stuff, too.

ayup. okay. 3 more to go!
lovemarty

song a day #26

the home stretch unearths:
boxmonster

i don't know if this song is good, but i know it was fun to make. which is rather amazing, as i went into today's song thinking ,"ug crap damn. i am tired like a filthy beast of tired and i just want to sit on my bum and watch aqua teen." but then the song became very fun. such is the occasional majesty of songaday.

i want to talk more about the fun show. what was super best was how much i got along with the other performers. it was just wonderful energy. the senator whatley was three nice boys (one of whom was the band "artist." ) and two foxy go-go dancers(one of whom was extra nice and offered to be my magician's assistant). before the show i drank beer with the boys and they were funny and nice and we made up stories about dead people and then they played fun songs. and then somewhere along the line the awesome and enthuisiastic shellshag popped up. these folks were in from san fran, and they were just good folks. and you know what? their rock songs kicked ass. awesome. and what is great is i think we all enjoyed each other's rock. yay! mutual self congratulation! it was just fun, you know? my set felt like the best yet and i loved playing a few of the songaday songs. and there weren't a ton of people, but everyoone who was there was awesome and fun and enthusiastic. i had the big fun.

also the cotton ponies played. but i didn't really meet them or get to listen to them too much. i'm sure that in all likelihood they are not murderers. that's a nice thing to say when you don't know anything about someone, right?

okay. omigod. i only have 4 more to go. this is getting crazy. i know i really need to update the index, which has something like only 11 of them. but i'm sooo tired. and, also, never forget to just scroll down if you're new, skip my babble, and listen to each song i've made every day for the last 26 days...

it is crazy. it has slipped by...time is slippy.

lovemarty

song a day #25

for xmen fans:
what warren said

a little curiosity. i am very sleepy. or tired. there is a difference, i suppose. i am not sure that i like this one. but maybe i do tomorrow.

so: the show was awesome. completely great. i will write more about it when i don't feel like falling over and smell so much like the haymarket alleys. but it was great. way fun. if you weren't there, come next time. if you were, bigtime thanks.

okay and yay and bathe and rest
lovemarty

song a day #24

gahhhhh:
the butter

some folks will recognize this from days gone by. i used to read it out loud in front of people. that was fun, too. this is very different, but also fun.

okay, i have to go play a rock show now.

you should come!
i am playing the thing or place called
"the plan"
1222 Commonwealth Ave. Allston, MA (Corner of Harvard &
Comm.) You can take the B-Line to the Harvard Ave. stop.
Tuesday July 20
9pm

WITH: Senator Whatley, Shellshag and the Cotton Ponies
Starts at 9 and I should be on early.
18+, something something for the cover.

it should be interesting. i plan to use some of the songaday

bigbyeandthanks
(it is getting close to the end, which feels strange and sad and exciting...)
lovemarty

song a day #23

ahem. well:
trainfight (ninjafight)

ayup. that's what you get when i'm this tired. probably what futuremen will call "the greatest song ever." unfortunately in the future "great" means "wicked terrible." but, in an abrupt turnabout -and with the viral spread (or rampage) of a rampant new england spirit, "wicked" now negates any negative adjective following it,re-translating any description after it into "awesome."

i know, futuremen ARE crazy.

pay particular attention to the poor conductor guys at the begining. cuz that's who this song goes out to. the poor conductor guys who are always having to deal with freakin ninjas fighting on their trainroof. what a wicked pain in the ass.

the vocals might be a little physically painful to listen to because my mixing judgement is currently deeply impaired. so, um, turn it down.

and come see me play songs tomorrow.

the sleepiest futureman,
lovemarty

song a day #22

listen up and get down to:
making tracks

getting a little crazy getting ready for a show and still making these things. and the songs are getting a bit odd...
another largely astructual nugget, this one featuring the vast return of the beloved squonched philly hit teamed up with the premiere of the all-powerful rocktopus hhorn machine.

just remember: "a paperclip in the night sky is assuredly a bad omen."
pretty weird stuff.

i'm hungry.

yaythank
lovemarty

song a day #21

for popular consumption:
logos

not to be confused with products.
yesterday i said there were 9 to go.
that is actually true today.

do you read the things my friend andy wade writes? i don't often enough, and everyone should. i just caught up. he is a beacon of hope to me. Dr. Andy Wade's Journal

should i explain this song? it is a curiosity, and it was done way fast. about 45 minutes. which is a testament to...what? i dunno... that i'm getting good at making songs fast that i don't really know whether or not i like. this marks the first time i had a few drinks before my song, too ( i think...geez..how can that be right..?yet it is..). which is surprising, because it seems like i drink a lot. but i guess maybe not. i mean, i'm not frothy drunk (nor am i a frothy drunk), i just had a few pints, you know?

so, i think i achieved the astructural ethic, at least.
okay - i'm gonna explain a bit. but really, it must be said, my whole damn arty ethic is that you get what you want out of my stuff and that's all valid and blah blah blah, you know? but this one is curious and interesting (to me, anyhow), so REALLY only read if you are interested in what i was thinking about. and i urge you to listen before you do so, and draw your own conclusions first.

perhaps it is self-explanatory. it is called "logos." thinking about corporate logos and my love/hate relationship with them and graphic design in general. but it is a triangle with three points. the second point is thinking about the greek notion of "the logos," which is a root for the idea of theology. this over-arching tao-like idea from the pre-socratic greeks that i really liked. sort of this underlying thread dealy ( look up "the logos" if you are particularly interested, i won't over-explain. or write me and ask...) on and beyond and onto the third point of the triangle, we have theo huxtable from the cosby show. he wore shirts. equilateral. and there it is, i guess. i don't know why i felt compelled to explain that.

okay.
bye thanks
lovemarty

song a day #20

very frustratingly:
granted

computer froze halfway through. had to re-record all vocals. very frustrating. sometimes such things are an opportunity. nope. it doesn't sound as good. but i gots to go to poker. ah wellity.

i thought of this song while wondering about different mechanisms that we ignore out of habit or need. it has potential. nine more to go, rock show on the 20th.

byethanksyay
lovemarty

song a day #19

and now we have:
...clocks...

my server has been up and down today. so if you try to get songs and can't please try again.

this song: again with a similar structure, but i like this one, too. still thinking about time. always thinking about crazy olde time. and thyme. last night i used oregano in our burgers. good stuff.

yeepy jeepy i'm sleepy.

jingle jangle.
lovemarty

song a day #18

eight teeeen =
star parade

an unusual sweet-slow-sad lullabye. i was tempted to subvert it and make it the same except "a parade of SARS." still stuck in a similar structure as many others, though. it is a very workable structure, i guess. i started something else all crazy and astructural and it was making me sleepy and then i made this pretty quickly. the root melody i have played a lot for a long time and will probably revisit. i think i like this one. anything is better after yesterday's turd. note: if you only listen to one song a day, let it not be "pack a jing. " ah well, such is songaday. does anyone out there have a favorite? my right now is the one about my teeth a few days ago. i love trollblazing and little birdy, too.

some things:
other stuff i was excited for the other day - my friend jimmy is super amazing. me and my other friend, big j (also amazing), are lucky enough to do the voices for his amazing cartoons. the new one just came out - check it out at: Big Castle Productions i am the little blob named marty. "the passion of the kingdom rebels." beautiful brilliant filthy crazy. i love my jimmy. he also did some work for troma that just got released as a special feature on dvd. i am the voice of the robotic dildo. all amazing. go and see.

and then also a little more about songs:
when i started i was adamant about not feeling guilty if i couldn't get a song done in any day. for the first few days i was "stacking songs," working on a few in one day in case there was a crazy day. i stopped letting myself do that and have been utterly obsessed with simply making one song in that day. well, it's my nature to obsess over some stuff, so i've remained committed. and i plan to do so until day 30. then i will be taking a break. i definitely want to do it again, probably soon. it is great fun. making one song every day is magic, but it also predetermines my day and stifles some of my social life. eh, who needs a social life anyways?

and one more thing: i am so excited about the new tmbg. at first i didn't know what to make of it. i woke up today craving it (and smiling at andywade on my couch - YAY!), and now unbridled love for THE SPINE. i want to play the song experimental film for so many of my friends! and there is a video for that on homestar, but i don't feel like typing that link - but everyone knows homestar...

thanks for listening, scroll down for lots more, i'm playing on the 20th at the allston plan, let me know what you wanna hear and then come and hear. phew. long post...

yay.
lovemarty

song a day #17

today:
Pak a jing

a new low, or high? song done in 30 minutes. and it shows. thanks again to the ridiculous kawasaki drum machine. and pete and wade. who when i walked in said ,"your new song is called 'where is my packaging?'" i changed it because i like to imagine that pak a jing is a little man i lost in my closet. i think these are my worst lyrics yet, which is an accomplishment.

more on the morrow. bigtime rush in a busy busy day.
show on the 20th. rock rock rock.

lovemarty

song a day #16

today is:
where are my teeth?

okay. exciting day.
song first: i think about this stuff all the time. we lose hair, fingernails, let go of poop and pee. but all this stuff is and/or was a part of me for at least a while. skin comes and it goes, you know? it's just crazy to me. all this stuff makes us up. and then it isn't us. it's trash. where do you draw the line? would i still be me if i was just a finger...or spinnne? i'm not explaining well because i'm too excited.

why?

because tomorrow is the new THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS ALBUM - the spine. they are my most favorite ever, so it is big time exciting (for me).
now - you can download it immediately from them here: TMBG along with the companion "the spine surfs alone."
and of course i did. and what is great is that the lion's share of the money goes right to them, as it is an artist owned and operated site. so i battle between the two me's. one who wants immediate gratification, and one who wants nice packaging (you get to LOOK at the packaging via the download with a nice pdf. but i am a TACTILE man...). the ferocious and frothy immediate gratification wins (and it doesn't hurt that the nice jons make more money this way). it just remains to be seen whether or not the frilly and pickled consumer whore in me will still take control and get me to buy the nice packaging, too. moreover, the awesome CORN MO is touring with them now. and he is the best and my nice friend.

i still haven't even listened because it is my reward after songaday.

OKAY! AND! i did my laundry and went food shopping. AND AND
i am playing a show! on july 20. somewhere. the allston pan. or plan! exciting (thanks DEB)!
more details to come, Bjournal listners are the first to hear. but it will be awesome and differenter than the last couple of shows. i would like to play some songsaday - let me know what you want to hear. and then come to the show! and hear it! interaction!
now, how the hell do i get ready for a show while still making one of these damn things every day...? aw well.

there is even more news, too. but i have to go listen.
lovemarty

song a day #15

today i made:
glowinthedarkshark

this one reminds me of peter. because it is about sharks, and he is always dreaming of them and with them. i asked him today what my song should be about, and this wasn't his answer. but i guess it was. this song feels a bit like a shark dream.

this one was fun, but hard. it was the hardest it has yet been to "get going." though it should be said that usually i have a finite window of time in which i can work on the song - typically i give myself two hours. but today i have a nice lazy sunday before me with no real big plans. chores i should do, but maybe my brain is tricking me into being irresponsible (not a hard trick). there were about 3 false beginings, which never happens.

weird.

okey dokey. if you have a blog or journal or whatnot and want to mutually link, please let me know. a few folks have indicated as much, and i am happy to link (and also to triforce).

yaybye
lovemarty

song a day #14

hi.
pontricate (until the evening frindles)

don't forget that i do one of these every day, so scroll past my blather to see the others (sorry, there is still a weird problem with the "index" to the left, i'll fix it asap).

another oldish scrap of writing. this one was particularly scrawly, and i remember when i wrote it it made me think of my friend mr nat nathaniel deerslayer bumpkins. he lives far away in california and i miss him often. i believe that he is notorious for pontricating until certain evenings would frindle (and often past their frindling and on into their bindling).

what is interesting (to me, anyhow) is that it feels like a "sister" to yesterday's song, much in the same way "passing" and the song after that felt.

i found the scrap in my laundry.

i have to go to work (poop), i won at poker last night!

please leave comments if you have thoughts - it helps me do this!

lovemarty

song a day #13

today's special:
please look

i like this one for now and today. based off of an older piece of writing and much trunkulatedomated.
fun to make.
i wanted to make all crazy layer of vocals but it kept saying ,"NO!"

and there you have it.

i am off to play poker!

lovemarty

song a day #12

today's song is called:
mailcall

again, feeling only so-so about it. perhaps a byproduct of moving towards the middle as routine sets in. i remember feeling similarly when doing a sock puppet a day. once the feeling of unquestioning commitment sunk in, the puppets started to hit this plateau after a neat spike. a similar creative experience may be happening here. also, my life just became far less mercurial. maybe i'll go back to these songs i don't like so much some day and love them best. or maybe not.

again, there are neat little things i like in it. and unlike last night's ("eleven"), this one was very fun to make. it's just not the most thrilling little ditty. but it has a niceness, and it went relatively fast. it somehow feels like looking at this very fragile little song inside of a very fragile little glass box that is perched on a delicate satin pillow snugly atop a big rock in a scenic but disconcerting green field...

it may well be the first song that has no electronic instrumentation whatsoever.

right.

yaythanks,
lovemarty

song a day #11

song #11 is called
eleven
fittingly enough.

here's the deal. i make one of these every day, so i guess they won't all be good. ha (like alf laughs)! i don't know, there are charming spots. all of these songs are like my ugly ugly babies. and i love them. but i love this the least, and it is the ugliest. i threw it in the trash. (ha!- alf, again...) but somehow after an exhausting game of capture the flag my brain thought it would be smart to do a country song with a bad rap in the middle. i don't know, i don't come up with this stuff. its the management.

trollblazing was a tough act to follow. let's think of this as cleansing the gullet. it's gullet, right?

odd facts surrounding this song - it was unintentionally finished at 11:11pm by my computer clock. when i first tried to mix it to disk, it chopped the song down to an eleven-second clip. twice. and this never happens. no explanation. having such wishy washy feelings about the song, i strongly considered posting the 11-second version.

but i like the rap.

thanks for listening if you are,
lovemarty

Song A Day #10

ahem...
ummm...
this song is called:
trollblazing

so, yup, i made a song called trollblazing. somehow fitting for the tenth. once again, a song that reminds me of andy wade. i'm sorry, it just keeps happening. and i have every intention of making a song about him, too. so there. he is an inspiring fellow.

it feels good and exciting to be at the 10th song a day. like there's no turning back now, baby. squeezed it in at 11:08 after a long hard day where i only wanted to drink beer, but then i was like, "eff this, i gots make my sowwwng!". and i did. phew. that was another close one.

i would like to take a small moment to thank the nice and kindly folks who've been encouraging and commenty (OH! you know who you are!). it is nice and helpful. it is also nice and helpful if you are just out there listening, too. but let me know what you think or that you are out there and it helps a lot, too.

yay.
lovemarty