So, I experienced some terrible site degradation over the past few weeks, but I think we’re out of the woods now. I wouldn’t be so calm about it if I didn’t know that nobody looks at this! Anyway, in lieu of original music, I will show you my progress on my EarthBound Mashup project!!!
Enjoy, and leave your comments! This is a work-in-progress.
Today’s Fresh Friday is a Late Lucy because I couldn’t actually find the audio file for the song I was looking for. But I did find it eventually, and by eventually I mean after I watched hockey games.
Bill Eager – Kiss Me [download]
I had a much less funky version of this song recorded once. I liked the idea of the song and wanted to hold on to it, but it just wasn’t working in its original format. So one day I was just messing around with the track and thought, “hey, what if I get all reggae on this?” And surely enough, it took shape in a way that really hit it home for me.
Kiss Me is the antithesis of how most of my songs are. Most of my songs steep in subtlety and complexity. This one comes out and is totally blunt in its meaning. It’s bold, proud, and cheeky. It’s something I usually wouldn’t need to write about, but it gives me a lot of faith in my ability to write more directly. It’s kind of a shoutout to anyone who isn’t quite so confident in making that special move on that special someone. I learned the hard way that the move doesn’t make itself, so get out there and grab it!
A couple of cool things about this song. I love the guitar pattern that plays in the chorus. I also want to point out the verse that starts “hand meets body / body meets mind”. It has a keyboard part that was written in polyrhythm. The rest of the song is going in eighth notes, the keyboard parts are going in seventh notes and eleventh notes (i think). I mixed it so it doesn’t stand out too much, but it gives a cool little push to the rhythm that keeps the song going.
Kiss Me
I want to love you
But not like I am
But here in this seedy bar
I’m not like I am
So kiss me
Let me know who you are
Don’t you get tired
Of pushing me away?
Well I won’t retire
Until I get you home and get my way
So pucker up and kiss me
Let me know who you are
I can’t believe I ever dreamed it’s so hard
So kiss me
I’m your fool, you’re my queen
You’re even better than my wildest dream
Hand meets body
Body meets mind
Mind if I stay the night
I promise I can turn you out
Until I see the light
So pucker up and kiss me
Let me know who you are
I can’t believe I ever dreamed it’s so hard
So pucker up and kiss me
I’m your fool, you’re my queen
You’re even better than my wildest dream
I want to love you
Just as I am
So kiss me
Let me know who you are
I’ve got to love you as soon as I can
So kiss me
Let me know who you are
I can’t believe I ever dreamed it’s so hard
So pucker up and kiss me
I’m your fool, you’re my queen
You’re even better than my wildest dream
Kiss Me by Bill Eager is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Only in my wacky world does Tube Tuesday happen on a Wednesday
Also known as, “When Memes Collide”, the most sensationally inane mashup ever, Tay Zonday versus Rick Astley
Hey y’all, welcome to your Good Friday edition of Fresh Friday. This week’s track is not so “fresh” in the pure sense, but it’s something a lot of people may not have ever heard, so I’ll bring it here.
Bill Eager – Key [download]
This is the first track off of my 2006 “effort”, The Keen Measure, which never quite got off the ground. It was all done and finished and awesome, but I never put it out there, or sold copies, or anything. Which is a shame, because to this day it’s the best thing I have to show for myself as an introspective songwriter.
Key is about watching a good opportunity go by because you’re waiting for the right thing to say, or the right time to say it. I wrote this song when I lived in a tenth floor loft in downtown Buffalo (a skyscraper by standards), and I remember working furiously on music while up there, no doubt annoying the heck out of my neighbors (not my fault, blame the paper thin walls). I would look down at the recording project, delve into it, and look up and several hours would go by, and it would be dark out. I noticed the change in time of day so much more because the windows in the place were enormous. So that was a big part of the opening line about watching sun turn to street lamp.
This song uses a layout that I used a lot during The Keen Measure. Piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, and drums. There’s a lot of sonic diversity in all the tracks because of this instrumentation, and a lot to listen to, as I tried to make the instruments do their own things when possible.
Key
Just another day along watching sun turn to street lamp
I’m pent up in a way that I just can’t turn upon its ear
Just another lover opportunity that I misplayed
I cannot refute that in this way I’m comfortable with me
You talk and you talk but I don’t hear
The words that are key when you draw near
I shy them all away
Wasting words on the naive is how I’d describe this
She must be insane just to persist
Try the better ear
Falling madly in love with an effortless daydream
She’s laying it thicker than heavy cream
But the coffee still stays cold
You talk and you talk but I don’t hear
The words that are key when you draw near
I shy them all away
You’re saying the words that I’ve dreamed of
I’m walking away from a true love
With every word I don’t say
Just another day alone watching sun turn to street lamp
I’m pining to take all the time back
And fill it with the truth
Just another lover opportunity that I mistook
For pickup lines and marionette hooks
That would’ve tangled me
You talk and you talk but I don’t hear
The words that are key when you draw near
I shy them all away
You’re speaking the words that I’ve dreamed of
I’m walking away from a true love
With every word I don’t say
Key by Bill Eager is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
What is Tube Tuesday, you ask?
Every Tuesday I post a video. I hope it will be something I made. If not, it will be something else. Understand? Good, now get off my back!
Me doing a cover of one of my favorite Roches songs. Terrible webcam + dubious cam hacking + simple effects = minimalist video.
This is relevant to every single one of my interests:
This guy goes by the name SEO Rapper, among others, but in my book, he can blow it up all day as the Dopest Emcee of the Dub-3-C.
Seriously. WDW and AEA need to get this guy to do their keynote. Hello, I linked you, I hope you’re listening!
My favorite part:
don’t use italics, use emphasis
don’t use bold, please use strong
if you use bold that’s old and wrong
when you use CSS, you page will load quicker
client satisfied like they eating on a snicker
they stuck on your page like you made it with a sticker
I nearly blew a nerd gasket.
This is one of my favorites from Boards of Canada, set to old-timey video.
The beginning reminds me a lot of the music from Dr. Andonuts’ Lab in Earthbound. I just love that detuned sound and the suspended, tangible energy it gives off.
What is Fresh Friday, you ask? It’s simple really.
Every Friday I post some music. Probably music that I made. I tell you a little about the music, how I wrote it, how I recorded it, etc. etc. Then, you listen to it and comment on it. Sounds easy enough, right?
Today’s Fresh Friday is a two-in-one kickoff, a song and another related song put together in one track. This might make it to an album someday, who knows.
Bill Eager – Apollo/Bacchus
This song is called Apollo, but there’s another “companion” track called Bacchus that goes along with it, an instrumental.
This song falls into the realm of the rest of the Mars/Coma Cluster business in a way, and talks about discovering a special someone in your life and warming up to them, and them warming up to you. It’s also about how discovering that special someone can seem like a conquest, and how the experience can make you feel intoxicated.
I first recorded Apollo in mid-2008, after Coma Cluster came out and I was swimming in new ideas. I was looking for a simple rock backbeat and a clean guitar to go with the melody, and I was hoping to really open up the song with thick, layered guitars. I actually got one of the thickest, strongest guitar sounds in the song when the chorus breaks in. If you turn it up, it’s just “there”, like a wall of sound in one track. The last thing I wanted to get was a little interplay between the guitar lead and the vocals, which comes in after the solo.
Naturally, I outfitted it with some orchestration and got more and more subtle as I worked on. Eventually I got what I wanted out of the song, but I still think I could come back to it and improve on it, or redo the vocals better.
The idea for Bacchus came later though, and I decided that, after listening to the song, I didn’t feel quite “fulfilled” in the feeling of the song. So I decided to fade back in with a little instrumental with the same idea. I got inspired to do this long ago listening to Sigur Rós’s Takk…, particularly what you get between Hoppípolla and Með Blóðnasir.
Apollo
I’d cross the universe to get to you
And there’s not a world I won’t destroy for you
I’ll be your spacesuit Napoleon
I’ll give you anything you want
But could you want me?
When I was just a little child I though I’d measure you
I’d fly around the world to get to you
I was a lunar module
On a cold orbiting soul
When I explored you
You were an undeveloped sphere
And I floated ever nearer there toward you
Two years, I’m still here
I’m waiting on the signs of life
But so far the radar is showing none in sight
Carried through the black hole
Will we recognize each other when it’s over?
Stranded in a black hole
Will we realize we’re choking when we’re out there?
Carried through the black hole
Will we recognize each other when it’s over?
I’d cross the universe to get to you
And there’s not a world I won’t destroy for you
Apollo/Bacchus by Bill Eager is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Hey, so some free radical in the blogosphere decided to review Another Life On Mars, and track by track at that! You can read the review here. It’s very detailed and well thought out.
I’m still held back with the cast, but hopefully only until the end of the month, and then I can start PT. Just in time to be ready for late spring/summer.
Not mcuh to mention at the moment but I wanted to post that review, and let you all know that I’m still hobbling around. And planning more music stuffs.