a new free single for tax day!

MP3: Good In Black (5.1 mb)

Hey, before you check out the new free blog song, let me tell you about the new free Marble Tea single. I'm calling it the Back in Time / Demi Moore Single since the song titles themselves are rather long. On the A-Side we have The Girls Who Went Back in Time and on the B-Side Please Don't Cut Your Hair Like Demi Moore. These songs originally appeared on the out-of-print Jersey Shoreline CD, but they've been freshly remixed and mastered for your aural delight right here in the laboratory. You can download the single (for free, in case you didn't hear) at:

http://www.marbletea.com/music.html

In case this next bit of code doesn't show up in your browser, you can listen to it in the player at the top of the page on that link I just gave you.






I hope you enjoy it.

Now, about this Good In Black song. I used to live with a triumphant feline named Sidney The Mega-Cat who was feared far & wide around the complex, but who also suffered extreme bouts of abstract melancholia. When we took walks together, he'd never hesitate to enter a neighboring apartment, nonchalantly gliding past the hissing resident cat with a smirk. He was big and brave and fearless, but on other days he'd only sit and stare, that giant mug stuck in silent contemplation of the stereo's VU meters while I wrote songs about girls. This is one of those songs, another old recording that I've pulled from the vault and cleaned up a bit (but just a bit). This too I hope you'll enjoy.

GOOD IN BLACK

Sidney sits and stares all day at the stereo
I joined him today I think I'll stay
I like it
He never says too much
I wonder what he's thinking
Does he need affection?
I know all about that affection thing
or lack of it, do you?
I know you do
You know I meant to tell you:

You look good in black
You look good in black

Sidney has a special way and a certain foe
I watched him today keep it at bay
Amazing
You never see those things coming
that'll take you down
But you get a feeling
I know all about those creepy little
coming up kind of things, do you?
Uh huh oh yeah.
I was going to tell you:

You look good in black
From the front, the side and the back
While you're dressing
I'm requesting
That you put on the black

Sidney sits and stares all day at the stereo
I joined him today I think I'll stay
I like it
He never says too much
I wonder what he's thinking

You look good in black
You look good in black

Zambiland, zambiland
Zambiland, zambiland

Interiors
Amp radio
Magic fortune teller
Rainbow

A Postscript:

Dylan Kight moved his once-a-week song blog to http://www.wildernessofthemind.com/. Check it out.

Sunburst Carrier has just released their first EP. It's called Sound Sensitive and it's beautiful. Lilting, cascading guitar-esque instrumentals for melancholy illumination. Sidney would've loved it.

Kate recently turned me on to Just Fontaine, and their new Four Views EP is another must-have. Great sardonic Brit-pop that fits squarely into my collection.

And if you haven't picked up the latest Max Eider disc...wtf are you waiting for?! I thought it was brilliant the first time I listened to it, but now I want to be buried right in the same coffin with it. Get your own, Spotty.

Who needs major labels?


RECENT ENJOYMENTS
Book: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
Music: Oracular Spectacular by MGMT
Film: Arrested Development - The Complete Series (Seasons 1, 2, 3)

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the final countdown

MP3: Don't Look At Me That Way (1.5 mb)

At the risk of ending up like George Oscar Bluth II (GOB), banned from the Magicians' Alliance for revealing the tricks of the trade, I am going to tell you how easy it is, my dear friends, to become your own personal pop star.

This month's song (sketch, really) was recorded quickly and completely in Mau's Brooklyn apartment using nothing more than my old iBook and a crusty acoustic guitar with ancient strings (indeed, I tuned it as best I could but was later told that its neck was in such a precarious condition that the strings needed to be tuned down...way down).

My intention was to keep myself busy while he was out by laying down a song idea in Garageband (which comes free with every new Mac) and then importing it into Logic for further fleshing when I was back home. Well, as often happens, I promptly forgot about the recording and, since I neglected to write down the chords or any other ideas surrounding the genesis p-orridge of the tune, I was unsure of what to do upon rediscovering it on my hard drive. Ah, I know: I'll put it up on the weblog as an example of how easy it is to do this stuff so maybe everyone else will give it a go as well.

So yes. While it's not a particularly good song (or even a complete one), you can see what possibilities abound. There was no external hardware involved (not even a pick!), meaning that I recorded the guitar and vocals without headphones directly into the iBook using its built-in microphone (that tiny little hole on the right side of the monitor...this is an older iBook, before the built-in iSight cameras), and used only the stock plug-ins etc that come with Garageband. The drums are one of the included GB loops that I dragged into the project without modifying, and the bass is one of GB's software instruments whose notes were played using the computer's keyboard.

As GOB would say: Ta-da! It's really amazing what can be done in less than an hour with this modern technology, even if that lead guitar sounds like some song from Mau's collection of 70s Yacht Rock.

But with all these modern advancements, why can't I get The Final Countdown (GOB's theme song) to play as a ringtone on my cell phone?


RECENT ENJOYMENTS
Book: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Music: Sniff by The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group
Film: The Weather Underground

Be sure to Subscribe so you don't miss anything! And while you're at it, check out Dylan Kight's new blog, where he's posting a new song every Tuesday...