Category Archives: Music

Aahhh, Thanksgiving. The one holiday where it’s completely OK to stuff yourself silly and sit around doing nothing. I also like it because it seems to serve as a day to sort of collect yourself before the insanity that is the holiday season kicks in… but I digress. So what else happens on Thanksgiving? Football! So this song is about… well… stuffing yourself silly, sitting down on the couch to watch football, and passing out on that couch while the game is still on. The tune is called “Tryptophan” in homage to the amino acid within turkey that people suspected was the culprit for making us all sleepy after the feast.

Now, in regards to the song itself… there are no words. Literally. I feel the best way for me to convey a dreamlike state is to abandon vocals and take the instrumental route. Also, about half of the tracks on the original Football Project – recorded in college on a 4-track – were instrumentals, so this project had to have at least one track without vocals. Also, I decided against repeating sections (save for the guitars in 7/4 at the beginning of the tune) in order to give the tune a sense of forward motion. At the end of the day, a LOT of guitar tracks were recorded and I’m really happy with the results. Enjoy! I’ll see you next week.

Tryptophan

P.S.: I filmed myself recording this song and will (hopefully) have the video up within a day or two. 

This week’s tune is… well… probably one of the strangest songs I’ve ever written. Believe me, I’ve written some weird stuff over the years, and this one is right up there. Unlike a lot of those, however, the vast bizarre-ness of this track is mostly intentional.

Let’s start with the lyrics, shall we? I think we shall. Considering last week’s tune was about getting whacked in the head, it made sense to write about team doctors this time. The fun part was writing the second “verse” (for lack of a better term) where I yelled out maladies and the doctor spewed out quick fixes (my favorite is still “get some duct tape”). Like last week, there’s an arcade game reference here, but this one is a) right off the bat and b) much more obvious.

Musically… I think the oddest part of this song is how quickly it came together. The stacking guitars at the beginning, the guitars dropping out for the second verse, the speed metal parts, the borderline-atonal chorus in 5 (needless to say, tracking the chorus vocal parts was not easy)… it just all made sense.  I wanted this song to be really uptempo and kinda hyper… and the quickness in which it was written helped accomplish that.

Finally, the chaos at the end… yeah, that was a lot of fun to record. The voices over the last chorus were improvised (no surprise there). My brother dropped by at some point yesterday, so I had him record a couple tracks as well. When he burst out laughing at the end of that bit, I knew this section was going to work… Enjoy it and I’ll see you next week with something quite different.

Ice Packs For Everybody!

Well, here it is – the Football Project tune about getting popped in the head. I had this idea from the beginning of the season, but I wanted to save it until about halfway through… like, say, now! Our protagonist is a quarterback for a team whose game isn’t going well. On, let’s say, a third and long, he gets driven out of the pocket and sacked. After he gets drilled in the noggin, he thinks he’s a medieval knight and talks like one for the rest of the song (If you listen closely, you’ll hear a king on the left side knight him, dubbing him “Sir Back of Quarter,” in the freakout section). I guess wearing all those pads might do that to a guy…

Musically, it’s a return to the progressive rock that has been a big part of this project. The real change of pace for me, however, is the… um… change of pace. I rarely write tempo changes into my music, but this tune called for them. Combine those with the host of time changes (which, considering this is me we’re dealing with, had to happen) and we have ourselves a nice little challenge here. Ultimately, though, the end result is worth the effort and brain-wracking… and this one was actually quite fun to put together, too. Enjoy the ride and I’ll see you next week.

Scrambled Eggs

Last week’s tune was a bit of fun, wasn’t it? Well, as a result, I’m now writing music ahead of schedule. Thanks to this development, I can tell you for sure that the next couple weeks are gonna be pretty crazy. But before we dive headfirst into that, Here’s a song where we can just kinda turn our brains off and rock out.

Musically, there’s not much to talk about here – just the fact that I like The Vandals. So, what about the words? Well, football fans have many things to be thankful for. The game itself, mute buttons, the many opportunities to wander into the kitchen and grab a snack without missing a play… all sorts of stuff! This song is an ode to perhaps the greatest invention in the history of football fandom and/or dormitory life: The Mini-fridge. That little guy you keep in the garage/basement/living room and stock with beverages (adult and otherwise). You don’t really need it, but it’s so nice to have around… Enjoy this week’s tune (preferably with a drink you just took out of that mini-fridge) and I’ll see you next week.

C’mere, You Big Lug

Happy Halloween! This week’s tune is an homage to the greatest/dumbest Halloween song of all time. That song, of course, is “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett. I took the music to that song, transposed it up a step and a half (for the guitars, that meant putting a capo on fret 3) and swapped out the third chord. In order to get a more ’60s-style sound, I used fewer microphones on the drums and pushed them back in the mix.

So, what was I gonna write about? Well, this one was simple. Instead of monsters suddenly dancing for whatever reason, this time they all get together and play a big ol’ football game. They played to a tie and partied afterwards (as a finishing touch, I mentioned Mr. Pickett by name in the last verse). Cue the fadeout. Have a great holiday and I’ll see you next Wednesday.

Special thanks to the people that joined me as the monster party at the end: Rob Klingenberger, Sarah Peangatelli, Robbie Ellis, Adam Donnelly, Jacqie Young, Kate Begy, and Steve Begy.

Monster Bowl XIII

Most musicians tend to wear their influences on their sleeves. Those influences make themselves known in a number of ways, be it chord choices, melodic phrasings, or rhythmic ideas (besides asking them, “Hey, what are your influences?”). If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you will certainly know that I’m no exception. Let’s face it – I’ve flat-out parodied bands in a few cases. In fact, this song is an unintentional band parody… but in this case, I kid because I love.

The band in question this time: Meshuggah. Their influence on me has crept up a few times in the past, but this song makes it clear as day. Specifically, “Destroy Erase Improve” is one of my top 20 metal albums. The method I used to create that disjointed feel was quite simple: I took some really basic rhythms and moved them so that they all start on the off-beat instead of the downbeat. Simple, yet deceptive.

Lyrically: We’ve all been there. In fact, we’re usually there on a weekly basis. Watching a game, trying to enjoy it, but the commentary and “analysis” is so wretched that it distracts us from the actual game and makes us want to mute the TV and/or stab our eardrums with a spork. Clearly, since there’s so much bad commentary out there, it must be a far tougher job than it looks. Incidentally, the bits of analysis in the verses were improvised. I have no idea how many times I said “football” during those takes…

It’s Tougher Than It Looks

Programming Note 1: Holy crap! This is the 100th post on this blog! How fun is that?! Thank you again for reading/listening/sticking with me.

Programming Note 2: Next week’s tune will be released on Halloween, not the following Wednesday.

The foundation for this week’s tune was hatched as I was listening to last week’s track fade out. That one faded out on a G chord, so why not fade in on a G chord this week? OK, so there’s the first 10-15 seconds… now what?! That was when I decided to take a different route entirely. Instead of another batch of prog-metal (but don’t worry, it’ll be back), I went old school, set the death growls aside, and churned out a nice little slab of groove rock complete with The Hendrix Chord. I was happy with the results, but it needed just one more thing…

What was that thing? Well, I can’t really be trusted with a guitar solo in this style, so I called my friend Robbie Ellis. He was willing to assist, so I wandered over to his place last night… and he recorded his solo parts (2:35-2:46, 2:56-3:17) in one take (He’s a professional, kids – don’t try this at home)! That was the extra kick the song needed.

Lyrically, most sports fans can relate to this one. Everything but the chorus is in the guise of a mopey guy watching his favorite team play really poorly. The chorus is his friend essentially telling him “Shut up, it’s football.” Sing along!

Grab your beer and a bag of chips and the nearest TV tray / You complain now but you’ll miss it before we even hit May

Enjoy and I’ll see you next week.

No, Team, No!

Well, last week was a fun little deviation, wasn’t it? Now back to actual songs. I can’t promise a track like that won’t happen again, though…

This week, a return to both more standard song structures (with some exceptions) and more melodic fare. I had been inspired by a band called Red Seas Fire for this one, so I do what they did and went to Drop-A tuning (yay seven-string guitars). Hadn’t done that in quite a while…

As one can guess by the title, the lyrics to this tune are from a crazed fan’s perspective, seemingly willing his/her team to win by yelling at the TV. Does it work? No, not really, but it’s worth a shot, right? We’ve all yelled at our TVs at some point in our lives, myself included. Nothing to be ashamed of – just kinda goofy, that’s all. Anyways, enjoy and I’ll see you next week… with perhaps a guest guitar solo…

Trying to Affect an Outcome With Your Very Mind