This song is tentatively called “Family.” Every now and then I’ll call my parents and we’ll talk about random stuff, our respective fish tanks, car troubles, the weather. I pretty much always get reminded how much I love them and appreciate their care for me – but you know, how do you work that in to a conversation about fish tanks? And where do you go after that? It just doesn’t work all that well.
While this song is called “Family,” I really feel the same way about my very best friends. Eeks now that all the sappy crap is out of the way…. As always, I apologize for the unsure vocal bits and the shoddy guitar – its just a live demo and i suck.
—
Family
Copyright 2008 Matthew C Good
I think I understand
why paper is so important.
It allows us to write
the things we cannot say.
To take a single thought
and juxtapose it with another,
to pull it out and see
what it is we mean.
So I wrote
What I could not say
What I really feel
about my family
I call them up
Every now and then.
We talk about events.
It makes me mess them.
I pay good money
to call anyone, anywhere
any time
that I feel like talking.
But like a silent movie,
you only get half the story,
and somewhere in the world, there are voices
looking for their homes.
So I’ll sing
What I’d love to say.
If I had my way,
I would tell you.
Some of you
I owe more than love
but more I cannot give,
so let that be enough.
HOT OFF THE PRESSES!
Only about half a song still, but… I like this one.
—
Please
(C) 2008 Matthew C Good
Please
Think about it carefully.
I mean,
What’s holding you back?
Sometimes, some things
shine pretty on movie screens
You and me
are everything we need
And if all I had was dust,
If I had you, that’d be enough.
What I really mean…
Please.
I, like all,
am looking for what can’t be found
But I can describe it,
I feel closer with you around
If one and one is two
then someone’s got some thinking to do
cuz I’m not half as strong
without you in my arms
—
Again, the high-strung epi. Capo 2, duh.
By matt
on January 16, 2008 at 8:21 pm
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Posted in Conrad
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So I’ve stopped calling these “Song-A-Weeks,” because they haven’t been, and aren’t likely to resume being, very weekly.
Here’s one called “Alright” – at least for now. Its pretty much just a demo, since only about half the song is written (it cuts off in the middle). It’s trying to be about talking and human interaction rather than all these machines we have as intermediaries.
—
Alright
(C) 2008 Matthew C Good
Put down the phone, and let me in
Turn off the car radio
There is a lot I’ll never know
about you.
Honey just quit your worryin
I’m never gonna let you go
Even if we lost everythin(g),
you know…
Baby, you and I,
we’ll get by
there’s always treasure
in your eyes.
Babe, as long as they
are focused on my face
we are gonna
be alright
—
Guitar is the epi, hi-strung. That was the inspiration i needed to get writing again.
This is a case where I thought of the title first. I was thinking about America and how the 20th century really was a crazy time for them (I say them because i was only around for about a fifth of it). You could call the postwar years our boom times. Heck, maybe people do. I’m not the student of history I’d like to be. But, even with all the sexual/russo paranoia of the fifties, we still built our country’s intellectual backbone during that time period, and kicked some economic butt, to boot. In that century, the U.S. emerged as the world superpower it is. That’s pretty amazing.
But that sort of massive growth can’t continue indefinitely, I don’t think. Like I said, I’m not enough of a student of history/economics to really be qualified to make these statements, but I was feeling depressed about America the other day. Heck, even the world. Sure, the next revolution is hard to see before it happens, but I was struck with the question of “where can we go from here?”
There are so many more things to worry about now – We can’t just build huge heavy gas-guzzling cars and pollute the heck out of our rivers and streams. We can’t go on throwing trash away at the rate we do. There aren’t the same vast stretches of nothing in our country (except in Alaska). In those ways, it looked to me like our boom times were behind us. Things from here on will develop at a much slower pace.
Anyway, I tried to get all of that vague discussion into a song and failed miserably. I really like the title and the concept, so I’ll almost certainly be junking this song and starting from scratch, after brushing up on my recent American history. Here’s the song in iteration 1:
Boom Times
(C) 2008 Matthew C Good
That’s just the problem
with getting what you want
all the time
It seems like a good thing
until you try.
If you never hold back
you’ll never be surprised
at what happens next
And that aint no way
to live a life.
Sunset
on the skyline
Broken
windows in a hi-rise
no one seems to mind
Gold Rush,
wish someone had told us,
nothing left but gold dust
from a guilded age,
and boom times.
It’s gonna hurt, dear,
to look this mess in the eye
and walk away
cuz with all of its squalor,
it was beautiful one time.
If anyone is listening
who wants some advice
it’s worth it
Cuz a restless heart is better
than an aimless life.
So I haven’t been keeping up with the Song-A-Weeks much. I might be done. I don’t know. I’ve been having a DARNED hard time coming up with stuff. Its a lot harder to sit down with a guitar and hammer out a song than it used to be, probably because I used to store up my good ideas for a longer period of time, whereas now, they’re gone about as fast as I get em.
Well, here’s a rough idea called “Shoulda Been.”
Shoulda Been
Copyright 2007 Matthew C Good
It’s just another day in the warzone
with comforting soldiers,
But it’s hard to hate what you don’t mind.
With every step I take,
I am careful to narrow my eyes.
………………..
Cameron tells me what I shoulda been
Says if I was smart I would listen
But I don’t put much stock now it what he says
It’s just another hairbrained suggestion
and I’ve already been through them in my head.
—
So yeah – eh, i’m just putting it out there. I don’t think this song will find a home for a long time.
This week’s song is just a partial clip – The ending would be monotonous and misleading at this point in the recording process. So I know it ends at a weird spot, but hey – it leaves you wanting more.
Keeping Warm
Copyright 2007 Matthew C Good
We’ll be snowed in
all week.
I called my boss, and called my
family.
Me and you, in this frozen
retreat.
Wasn’t long before the
power quit.
It had been a while since you were
candle lit.
As the night time air
came in,
We had blankets,
we had peace.
We were keeping warm,
you and me
In that blank white
powder sea,
I was king and
you were queen.
And the simplest things
made our hearts sing.
When we lose our
focus,
We’ll have memories
of this.
—
Thank you, Reason, for giving me piano sounds that actually inspire something other than hatred for my keyboard. I seriously tried to write a couple piano songs before i got Reason working again, using my keyboard’s built in sounds… but I just couldn’t pretend to be interested in the sounds I was making – so no song. The drone is also a reason patch, albeit ran through my pedals and a guitar amp and a (digital version of a) Plate reverb.
I am ALL ABOUT the plate reverbs these days. LOVE THEM.
Hey gang – new demo.
Most of my work today was on doing some mixing on the awesomeness seth rouch did on Human Nature and Love. Very cool stuff. Click on that link if you want to hear where that song is going… But you may just want to restrain yourself and wait until its finished. I’m debating not posting any more “work in progress” mixes as these songs get more and more fleshed out, just to keep things surprising when I actually finish them. If you’re violently opposed to such and idea, post and let me know. So – choose your destiny, to peek or not to peek, that is some kind of question.
The new tune is kinda neat… I think it would sound good playing with a band. If I had my way, I’d get Chase, John, Seth, and Ian all in the same room to record basics for this one live with me, and kinda get the arrangement more rockin. But right now, it’s an okay tune. I like the lyrics. I may have set the tempo a little too fast, since it seems to me that I’m stumbling over my words a bit. Let me know what you think.
—
Near Me
Copyright 2007 Matthew C Good
I was looking for a reason
to see the change of seasons
through another pair of eyes
One more year of feeling
the cool of the breeze and
I might lose my mind.
I could turn on my car and drive
And we’d start to feel alright
I was staring at the blue tube
thinkin bout the words used
to describe
the place where the land fused
with the sky blues
to divide
the day from the night,
what we’ve done from what we might
But I’m not gonna go
unless you’re near me
It’s cold in the night
the days are dreary
But I’m not gonna go
unless you’re near me
It’s cold in the night
It’s cold in the night
It’s cold in the night
Visions are haunting,
worse than a bad dream.
Nothing keeps you up late
more than a clean slate.
But I’m not gonna go
unless you’re near me
It’s cold in the night
the days are dreary
But I’m not gonna go
unless you’re near me
It’s cold in the night
It’s cold in the night
It’s cold in the night
Honey, I believe in
this place unlike where we’ve been
—
rock and roll.
HELLO – song a week is back. I have been slacking off lately, but it is mostly due to me not having the things I needed to get my recording rig rolling in the new place.
Here’s a new song that I’m pretty stoked about…. I’m using Kristin’s guitar – which you will notice sounds much nicer than my craptacular epiphone.
Fairy Tales
Copyright 2007 Matthew C Good
Fairy tales
are how I will survive
when now and then
I lose my love for life.
Bearing down
are the winter and the night,
struggling with the joy
from the Christmas lights
I know what I want now,
I didn’t know at first.
But I still can’t tell you,
It takes many forms.
Do you know that feeling
you get when you’re haunted
by the ghost of the unknown?
That’s what I wanted
From science books
and the arms of a good friend,
cuz make believe
helps me feel alive again
This world is small
if I can fit it in my mind
and pick and choose
and leave the reset behind
Call me dreamer
Call me absurd
I want what can’t be
Except in thoughts and words
Do you know that feeling
you get when you’re haunted
by the ghost of the unknown?
Do you know that feeling?
That’s what I wanted
when I prayed for better dreams.
That’s what I wanted…
That’s what I wanted.
—
I used my cool little ghetto-harp, and i think it sounds neat. maybe a little out of tune but this is just a demo, so who cares. I’m thinking this song might be a good closer, lyrically, because it sums up pretty much where i’ve been trying to go with a lot of my other songs, like worlds unknown, the way off the ground, nostalgia, and to a lesser extent, drive, every time I close my eyes, human nature and love, etc…
Let me know what you think!
Here are some items on note, regarding free music.
1) Radiohead dropped a new album today (IN RAINBOWS). It is requiring all of my energy to wait until tonight to listen to it. I’m sure it’s phenomenal though. You can go to inrainbows.com and pay whatever price you want to for the digital download, even nothing if you so desire. You could pay a penny if you like, just to give it a listen. I suggest that you check it out, as radiohead is not likely to disappoint if you give them more than one listen.
2) My last two albums (The Falling Action and The Shortest Distance Between Two Points) are now available in their entirety for free as downloads on my ugly, outdated website. They are still for sale for $5 (plus $1 shipping), but if you just wanna grab the downloads, I encourage you to do that too. This of course means that you are free to burn/rip/give away/upload/share the files with whomever you like, so hopefully I’ll get a little promotion out of this. The idea here being to build buzz for whatever new stuff may follow.
3) I’ve redesigned my homepage, so you can now pop on over and see what’s new in the MattLife. I’ve got summaries of any recent blogs up there, thumbnails of recently-added images to my gallery, and a shortcuts to recent podcasts. Give it a look-see and let me know what you think. I hate php, and this required me to confront that beastly demon in a more in-depth manner.
Last evening I brought all my recording junk over to Seth’s place. His roommate was gone for the week, so we both took that as a sign to go make some loud noises. We set up his drums in the living room and crammed all my recording gear in there with ‘em. And I donned my earplugs…
This time we got five songs done. Not bad since we didn’t actually hit record until about 7:00 or 7:30… Oh man but was I tired by the end of the night… It was somewhere around 1 am I think when we quit. Which is late for me these days. When I have to get up for work the next day (and bring bagels, at that).
Here’s what we worked on:
Every Time I Close My Eyes
Pretty standard cool drumming on this one. Seth did a cool part on the instrumental part before the last verse.
Chris
Pretty Darrrrrrn Great. Think the drums on ‘Wolf at the Door’ mixed with Ringo Starr, but played by a jazz drummer. something like that.
Not Yourself
Brushes – sounds AWESOME.
Maybe Not
I think there’s some cross stick in this one, kinda perky happy sounding, which realllly works nicely with the stupid-depressing lyrics.
Human Nature and Love
Probably my favorite drumming of the night… REALLY awesome stuff. I was initially thinking that the stuff on this song would have to be REALLY light – and it sort of is – but the drumming is a little bit like Glenn Kotche’s (Wilco), in that its not about the beat, but more about an ensemble of percussion instruments. I won’t give it all away, but we did some reallly cool stuff on this song.
Recording Notes:
Last time we did this, I draped a comforter over the kick drum and put the soundeluxe outside the kick, but I didn’t end up liking that sound very much after I took it home. I remembered how I had liked the sound of the old “NS10 speaker as a microphone” trick for kick drums. So I asked if he had any kind of speaker laying around… He pulled out this radioshack guitar amp (!!). It would work, if we would affix the bare wires from my cut-up mic cable (especially for this purpose) and get em to stay. A lot of speakers have clamps, so it isn’t a problem, but not this one. We ended up using some little paper clippy things to mash the contacts together. Gotta love ghetto recording. Can’t tell at all from the sound though. Big, deep, “round” bass drum sound.
Speaking of the bass drum, Seth got all new heads for his kit – and the kick head was this special thingy. It had deadening rings on the front head, with the intended purpose, that you wouldn’t need to put a pillow or anything inside the drum. Well, that didn’t really work out quite like they said, because the back head rang a lot. We ended up putting some padding in there anyway. After we did this, the system really worked great though, because it gave us a lot of flexibility. For songs like ‘Chris’ and ‘Human Nature and Love,’ we could just remove one of those foam rings real quick and suddenly, the drum resonated a lot more. Real nice for controlling that stuff.
Input List:
- Kick Inside – AKG D112
- Kick Outside – RadioShack Guitar Amplifier
- Snare Top – Modified (transformerless) SM57
- Snare Bottom – RODE NT5
- Hi-hat – SM57 (I tried an nt5, but it was clipping out my preamps, no matter what I did. So I had to sacrifice some quality)
- All 3 Toms – Seth’s cool Shure mini-condenser guys – cant remember the numers now.
- Overheads – Seth’s SM81′s, equidistant from the snare (for phase, nice little trick)
- Room – Soundeluxe u195. Moved it into the adjacent room for a few tunes.
Sound clips posted sooner or later. That brings the list of songs with drums up to:
The Way off the Ground
Worlds Unknown
Not Yourself
Drive
Is This What You Really Want
Any Happier
Chris
Hold On
Every Time I Close My Eyes
Maybe Not
Human Nature and Love
Please continue the discussion of which of the remaining songs need drums, and which of all the songs i’ve demo’d (or others you know i have but haven’t demo’d yet) you would like to see on an album. Thanks!
