Category Archives: Music

Like a certain line in Florida, I had a special case set for whichever team had the oldest average age. Since the winner in the age race was Philadelphia, Here’s the result: A song with the line “Get off my lawn” in the chorus! For the rest of the song, I wrote as an angry old man with a severe chip on his shoulder and a cannon for a throwing arm. Admittedly, he and his buddies turn into complete jerks in the bridge… (DISCLAIMER: This is not how I feel about the actual team itself. Truth be told, I kinda like ’em.)

Musically, I had a local band in mind and ready to kill… until I discovered they weren’t from Philadelphia. Armed with that knowledge, I went back to the drawing board and discovered a perfectly viable second option: The Dead Milkmen! I tried to hone their sound as much as possible on this recording: Not too thick of a sound, little to no distortion on the guitar, and bingo. Enjoy… and get off their lawn!

Philadelphia

Up Next: Pittsburgh (Friday), San Diego (Next Friday)

20 down, 10 to go! When I got the idea of writing the songs in this project in the style of a band that comes from the teams’ areas (an idea that really solidified with Atlanta), one band immediately sprung to mind for Oakland: Green Day – one of the most well-known bands from the East Bay region. Since my first taste of them was with their big crossover in 1994, that’s where I went in terms of the music here. Lyrically, I decided to write as a kid just getting called up from Triple-A… only to play in Oakland, home of by far the most expansive foul territory in the majors (I’ve heard people claim that the foul territory in Oakland drops batting averages at least 20 points). But he’s still convinced that if he does something worthwhile in the majors, he’ll “find somewhere else to go,” if the stories about Moneyball are to be believed. When it came time to sing, the melody was fairly simple to put together… mainly because Billie Joe Armstrong and I have quite similar voice ranges. Regardless, this song was a fun way to pay homage to an album that completely changed the way a 13-year-old Ed looked at music. Enjoy!

Oakland

Next up: PENNSYLVANIA (Philadelphia Tuesday, Pittsburgh Friday)

The proprietor of this blog wishes to apologize for the lack of “ghostride the whip” references in this song.

It’s New York Week! Like Chicago and Los Angeles, New York gets two songs for its two teams. The second song is for the AL team, the team we all know and love/hate/love to hate. Nearly every metaphor works (rich kid, bully, mogul), but a rival General Manager gave us an instantly usable nickname: The Evil Empire. With an alias like that, how else was this song going to sound?!

This is a tune where not only did I have a solid idea from the project’s onset, I actually had the last batch of lyrics written down for at least a month. Naturally, I went flat-out evil – and over the top – with this one. I even programmed some synth parts in GarageBand and flew them into Pro Tools – a first for me. The pile of guitars, though, was definitely not a first. I had high expectations going in… and they were completely exceeded. This has quickly become one of my favorites from this entire project and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

New York, Part 2: Empire

Next up: Oakland (Next Friday), Philadelphia (The following Tuesday)

It’s New York Week! Like Chicago and Los Angeles, New York gets two songs for its two teams. The first song is for the NL team, who plays in the lone borough I’ve never visited (unless a layover in JFK Airport counts). I’m not a big fan of the team, but I watch them on TV a lot for two simple reasons. They’re on my local cable and they have one of the better broadcasting crews in the bigs. I tried not to be mean-spirited in this tune, but the lyrics wound up being really cynical instead… which I guess is kind of appropriate for this team.

Like the second Los Angeles tune, this was a near-Option Paralysis scenario. So much good music from which to choose! Luckily, this one was solved a little easier when my friend Brandon pointed out the late ’80s/early ’90s NYC hardcore scene. SOOO… I searched for Madball, Pro-Pain, and Sick Of It All on YouTube and presto. Admittedly, I was pretty surprised by how much a lot of that stuff grooved… but hey, go with what works, right?

New York, Part 1: Amazin’

Next up: New York, Part 2 (Friday), Oakland (Next Friday)

I don’t really have a favorite baseball team. I have to cross a border to see the geographically closest MLB team to my hometown and the teams I get on TV every day are both New York teams (friggin’ BARF). But, if I absolutely had to pick a favorite team, I think I would go with Minnesota. They’re kinda fun to watch, they always find a way to contend, and thanks to the minor league team that plays here, I got to watch about half of the roster play before they made it to the bigs. How awesome is that?

The twin cities have a fascinating pop music history. Thanks to the area’s very wide-ranging contributions to popular music, this tune could have taken a host of directions. In retrospect, it might have been fun to go Bob Dylan on this, but I decided to keep up with the vibe of most of the project and I went with the vicinit seminal punk band – Hüsker Dü. As a result, the track is a little raw and deliberately left unpolished. As for lyrics: Since the two big star batters for Minnesota have the same first and last initials, I made sure that every other word started with either “J” (first) or “M” (last). Sure, the finished song makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but this was an extremely fun and challenging exercise nonetheless… and in a nod to a more modern Minnesota band, I used some big words a la Motion City Soundtrack. Enjoy!

Minnesota

Up next: New York (Part 1 Tuesday, Part 2 Next Friday)

Milwaukee! This is a team/city that offers plenty of potential subjects… before getting to anybody that actually plays there. The commissioner, beer, more beer, tailgating, beer, the all-star game tie, Bob Uecker, beer… the list is immense. My choice: The sausage race! I thought it would be a good idea to pay homage to the original Over-sized Non-Mascot Mascot Race in this tune. The subject matter provided an excuse to use some horrible puns, too!

A bit of a milestone was achieved in this recording: The beginning – another style fake-out, not unlike Florida – marks the first time I have ever recorded an accordion. I played it as well, though I cheated a bit (I used separate tracks to record the two sides) because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing with that thing. After the accordion bit, this turned into probably the most manic song so far in the project. It would be a bit of an understatement to say that I’m happy about that development… Please to enjoy!

Milwaukee

Up next: Minnesota (Next Friday), New York (The following Tuesday and Friday)

It’s Los Angeles week! Like Chicago, LA gets two songs for its two teams. The second song is for the NL team, who moved cross-country in the late 1950s and maintains a rich history and a solid fanbase… even if it doesn’t look like it when their home games start. I have nothing against the team – for the record, VIN SCULLY IS THE MAN – but I couldn’t resist writing about the fans’ reputation of arriving late and leaving early…

I initially wasn’t sure where to go in terms of music with this one. Call it an option paralysis sorta thing – So many good choices for LA-based music that I couldn’t decide! Luckily, the decision was made clear after spending some time thinking about the team. Something about them seems “stuck in the ’80s” to me for some odd reason, so I channeled my inner Van Halen (without the green M&Ms, sadly) and went arena rock/hair metal. Aaawww yeah… If I only had the high tenor voice and/or the synthesizer – then it REALLY could have been authentic! Either way, I’m quite pleased with the results. Enjoy!

Los Angeles, Part 2: Blue