Category Archives: Music

It’s Los Angeles week! Like Chicago, LA gets two songs for its two teams. The first song is for the AL/geographically confused team that plays in Orange County. I’ve always kinda liked them in some strange way, to be honest… but four geographical name changes? That’s just nuts.

Musically, this one was a no-brainer. When I started this whole project, I knew I wanted to channel The Vandals as much as possible in this song. In the end, I came up with (I think) a pretty good chorus, a song that’s almost too fast, a couple of jokes, and some fun times with the arrangement. I’m really happy with the results and I hope you enjoy it.

Los Angeles, Part 1: Anaheim

Up next: Los Angeles, Part 2 (Friday), Milwaukee (Next Friday)

You have to feel for a team like Kansas City. They’ve been good before and they have a cool friggin’ ballpark (I’d love to see a game there some time. Granted, I’d love to see every major league ballpark, but STILL…), and a few hall-of-famers have spent some quality time there (George Brett, anyone?). BUT, the team has fallen on some pretty hard times lately – like, say, the entire last decade – and they’ve been stuck in the lower echelon of their league. It’s kinda sad, really.

For this tune, I decided to take the pop-punk/emo/strange breakdown route. This may seem like an odd match, but when you consider the whole emo thing is sorta like that team – gets a far worse rap than most of it is, and usually dismissed without experience – it starts to make sense. Sure, there are a lot of crappy emo bands – just like there were a lot of bad Kansas City teams in recent history – but it’s not ALL bad (Also worth noting: The Get Up Kids are from Kansas City). As the last line in the chorus says: “We can’t always be this bad.” Enjoy!

Kansas City

Up next: Los Angeles (Part 1 Tuesday, Part 2 Next Friday)

This tune here practically wrote itself. Music, melodies, harmonies, subject matter… it all came together quite naturally. The “local flavor” was a no-brainer: Houston rock is ZZ Top and King’s X first and foremost. Both bands hit pretty hard and groove like crazy, but I leaned far more towards King’s X in the song’s details (Drop-D tuning, three-part vocal harmonies). Nothing against ZZ Top – they’re friggin’ great – but King’s X is one of my favorite bands, so they kinda took precedence, you know?

In terms of the subject matter: This team is bad. Really bad. They weren’t always this bad – they won an NL pennant just five years ago! However, they seem to be still using the blueprint on building their team from 2005… and unfortunately for them, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio are not walking through that door anytime soon. I wrote these lyrics with this in mind… though in retrospect, I should’ve thrown in a line about Biggio getting plunked. Anyways, enjoy!

Houston

As a baseball fan, I’m conflicted when it comes to Florida. On one hand, they’re a young team with loads of potential to do some serious damage in the NL. But on the other hand, the way the team has been run in most of its history – crying poverty and holding fire sales after both championships, holding the area hostage for a new stadium a few years after the same owner killed the Montreal Expos – bothers me to no end. Oh well – gotta take the bad with the good, I suppose. This track “won” the poor attendance lyric line I had from day one: “Come to the ballpark, get a row to yourself.”

Musically, I was stumped on this one for a little while… until I discovered that one of the best prog-metal bands on the planet – CYNIC – was formed in Miami. Sooo… a little mambo at the beginning mixed with some math metal and we’re good to go! This was a serious challenge to put together, but the end result is definitely worth it for me. Please to enjoy the weirdness.

Florida

Next up: Houston (Friday), Kansas City (Next Friday)

Detroit is a city with a rich and fascinating pop music history. But, when it came time to write this song, a band not from the area was the first one to pop up in my mind. Why, you ask? The answer is quite simple – “Detroit Rock City.” So, I went for a Kiss-style sound on this one (For the record, Kiss formed in New York). I would’ve channeled Alice Cooper (who actually is from Detroit), but baseball really isn’t all that creepy/spooky to begin with…

The song is mainly about the big tiger statue right outside one of the entrances to the stadium, with the phrase “party in the park” (that was the first written lyric) littered all over the chorus. I recorded this tune in a manner of hours and I like the raw feel here. It accentuates the party vibe to me – loud, raucous, and only here to have a good time.

Detroit

Next up: Florida (Tuesday), Houston (Next Friday)

Aahh, good ol’ Colorado. When I got to this one, I was stumped. What bands came from Denver? I had no idea. I turned to the interwebs for an answer… “The Fray?! Oh, hell no.” So, what now? After a little more research, I discovered that Denver is considered a hotbed for the jam band scene. With that in mind, I tried my best to condense the essence of Phish into less than 2 minutes. Little unison licks, the first piano part in this project, a solid groove, a guitar solo, and the “David Bowie” (The Phish tune, not the guy) / “Dinner and a Movie” style of lyric writing. This song turned out better than I expected and I hope you enjoy it.

Colorado

Next up: Detroit (Next Friday), Florida (The following Tuesday)

Well, folks, here it is – the musical (insert your favorite off-speed pitch here) that had to happen at some point. I’ll get back to ridiculously loud and uptempo music, of course, but this was too good of an idea to pass up. The iconic symbol of the Cleveland Indians – besides perhaps Major League – is that grinning Chief logo. Sooo… why not REALLY make him an icon? I set about doing so the only way I knew: I gave him Chuck Norris-like qualities and set it in a rambling country-style musical backdrop. The result was pretty spectacular and I hope you enjoy it. Y’all come back now, you hear?

Cleveland

Next up: Colorado (Friday), Detroit (next week)

This tune is a classic case of “the first idea isn’t always the best.” My first thought for Cincinnati was “Hey, Reds – Communists!” However, I think we can all agree that’s a dumb idea, so that found the scrap heap in a big hurry. The second time around, I started to think about The Big Red Machine, the team that dominated in the ’70s… and decided to make it an actual thing – The Machine! Emerging from the nearby river and running roughshod over everything. Musically, I knew where to go from there. Enjoy! Bask in the heaviness! And try not to hit your keyboard while headbanging (can’t say I don’t look out for you people).

Cincinnati

Next up: Cleveland (Tuesday), Colorado (Next Friday)