Category Archives: Music

Happy New Year! For the first post of 2010, here’s a fun little uptempo number which will be played live by my new band, …Of Doom! (in fact, we’ve already learned the song and drummer Jared and I bashed our way through it at a recent open mic). This is a song slated for the upcoming album, “Dancing For Communism” (sort of a sequel to “Dancing For Patriotism”). This particular track hearkens back to the Cold War days – when in doubt, you can always blame the commies. Blah blah blah production and instruments by me.

Red Squares (Fallout Sheltered) [Demo]

Sometimes I like to write really simple little songs. Not much to them – maybe a verse or two and that’s it. This is one of those songs. Written (in about ten minutes) and recorded in 2007, this track is highlighted by a cheap joke and a quick batch of vocal harmony. Enjoy!

Production, mixing, all instruments by me.

What’s Her Name Again?

Because I seem to have lost my voice over the weekend: How about an instrumental? I’ve seriously dug into the ol’ archives for this one. Recorded in 2003 for the first Football Project, this shows what a person can do with a 4-track recorder (quite a jump – I went from using a 4-track to Pro Tools the following year). All the percussion instruments were recorded on the same track – if you listen closely, you can hear me put down the tambourine at the end of the bridge.

Production, mixing, all instruments by me. Recorded in an on-campus apartment in Purchase, NY.

Asleep on the Couch

It’s Boxing Day (even if I’m American), so what better way to worm out of Christmas than speed metal? This track was recorded in early 2005 as the very end to The Football Project 2 (the same project that produced “O Christmas Fight”). I liked the result so much that I made a file separating it from the rest of the original track and called it “Death To Football”. Production, mixing, and all instruments by me.

Death To Football

aka “Evolution of an Instrumental, part 1”

While I was in college, I concocted an idea for a fake metal band called “Ith”. The idea was to have an album with 13 tracks of parody nü-metal that we can all laugh at and rock out to at the same time. However, to break up the monotony, Track 12 was an acoustic instrumental called “Fjorc”… a tune I liked so much that I decided to record a second time outside of its original album context. “Fjorc” was originally written in 2003, this recording – which I dubbed “ReFjorc” – was made three years later in 2006.

Production, mixing, guitars by me. Guitar freaks: Drop-C tuning (C G C F A D), rhythm part is double tracked

ReFjorc

OK, one more. This one’s a blast from the past, taken from the second version of what I called The Football Project. The idea: Audio Christmas card gone horribly wrong. I had my brother play “O Christmas Tree” (yaaay public domain) and then we argued on a separate track. A script was not needed – we’re brothers.

Bickering/announcer/production: Me. Piano/bickering: Rob Klingenberger.

O Christmas Fight

If some is good, then more is better! We conclude the three days of Christmas with this year’s batch of tracks. Recorded late November-early December (specifically, I finished it about a week ago as of this post), this collection was a lot of fun to assemble. This year’s main goal was to make the most manic possible version of “Jingle Bells,” which I’d like to think I accomplished. But overall, I’m really happy with the results and I hope you enjoy them.

All instruments and voices by me, recorded and mixed by me.

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

Jingle Bells

Prelude

Last Minute Shopping

Recorded in November of ’08, this batch of Christmas music was a lot of fun to put together. If there’s any lesson to take from these recordings, it’s this: when in doubt, play faster. “Up On The Housetop”, in particular, is a sort of speed record for me – four full verses and choruses in one minute and six seconds. Enjoy!

Recorded and mixed by Mike Huurman. Additional yelling on “Let it Snow” and “Deck The Halls” by Mike Huurman and Steve O’Riley.

Let It Snow

Up On The Housetop

Deck The Halls

White Christmas