Update (February 1, 2008): The songs are up on the iTunes Store but please do not purchase them yet! If you look closely, you’ll notice it’s showing that all of the songs are 45 seconds long, which is incorrect. The files got corrupted somewhere along the way. I’m working with TuneCore to get the correct versions of the songs swapped in, so hopefully the problem will be resolved in the next few days. If you check the store and the track listings are more in the realm of 4:36, 1:38 and 2:36, then they’re the correct versions.

Update (January 14, 2008): I’ve decided to allow this project to take a natural course, and therefore to recognize that “Volume One” (the tracks representing 1973, 1976 and 1978) is ready for a wider audience in the form of a 3-song single/EP. (I’m not really sure where you cross the line between “single” and “EP”; is it total length? Number of tracks? According to this, it would be considered a single, as the three tracks total up to just under 9 minutes. But to me, a “single” means one song, or maybe two, if one is more prominent than the other. “EP” to me suggests at least three songs, with more equal importance, and the greater conceptual continuity of an album. So I’ll call it an EP.)

And so, with the help of TuneCore, I’ve released the EP to be sold online by iTunes (in the US, Canada, UK/EU, Japan, and Australia/NZ), Rhapsody, eMusic and Amazon MP3. Apparently it takes several weeks for processing, so the tracks should start appearing on these services sometime in March. I’ll post more info as it becomes available.

Update (November 15, 2007): As the lack of “new news” would suggest, this project is stalled. I’ve somewhat lost the initial ambition for it, plus I’ve just gotten too busy to work on music for the past few months. I have a feeling this is going to be a much longer-term project than I had originally anticipated. However, for those if you (if you exist) who were actually interested in this, I am posting two additional early/incomplete tracks to go along with the three finished ones that have been here since August. They are the as-yet untitled (other than to identify the bands I am ripping off stylistically) tracks for 1979 and 1980, at the bottom of the page. Enjoy (if you dare)!

This project began in June 2007, and features, for the first time, semi-prominent vocals. This is not to say I’m actually singing, however, which is an impossibility. It’s not really rap either. I’d place it somewhere between Beck and William Shatner. (I’ll leave it up to you to determine exactly where in between them.)

The overall concept of the album is still taking shape but it’s basically an autobiography set to music. Each track is representative of a year in my life, although there may not be a track for every year. Each track would need to be under two minutes on average, or I’d need to make it a double album… or a triple!

In fact, that may be how it ends up. I’m considering putting together 3 separate “volumes,” each containing 12 tracks. The first will be 1973 to 1984; the second, 1985 to 1996; the third, 1997 to 2008. (Assuming, of course, I can meet the ambitious deadline of creating 36 tracks… 36 quality tracks, before the end of next year.)

I’ve given myself an added challenge in that each track is intended to sound — both in terms of the musical style and the instrumentation/production — like the kind of music that might actually have been produced in the year it represents. That’s not so hard for me to handle at this phase of the project. I love Hammond organs and Rhodes electric pianos, and the dry, crisp production values of the late ’70s. I may find it difficult to put the same loving care into recreating the plastic sound of early digital synths and huge reverb drums from the mid- to late ’80s. So maybe I’ll just skip from 1982 to 1991.

Some details of the individual tracks appear below. In addition to the three completed tracks described below, I have about 10 other tracks that are at some level of progress, anywhere from a single riff to a fairly complete multitrack recording that’s just missing vocals, solos, etc. The two that are closest to completion are intended to run back-to-back (currently identified as 1974 and 1975, but probably will be moved to 1979 and 1980, depending upon the thematic content I come up with for them). The first is a spacey Pink Floyd kind of thing and the second has a jittery, repeating electric piano riff reminiscent of Supertramp. (So, obviously, these tracks are pegged to fall in somewhere before the Flock of Seagulls stuff.)

1973: I Am the Aftermath

Version 2.0.1 ~ July 25, 2007 ~ 4:35
Keyboards, 5-string bass, MIDI sequencing, vocals

This track is a strong personal statement, probably the most difficult track for me to share. The lyrical matter concerns the very earliest moments of my existence. I don’t exactly keep it a secret that I’m adopted, and I’m quite happy to share, with anyone who is willing to listen, the exciting story of my successful (and surprisingly expeditious) search for my birth mother in 2003. But the fact remains that I was (most likely, at least; I haven’t pressed my birth mother for details) conceived unintentionally, under less than ideal circumstances. And that fact is a cloud, however small (most of the time), over my life. This song is my attempt to address that.

1976: I Was Excited About My New Bed Until I Ended Up in the Hospital (At Least That’s How I Remember It)

Version 1.6.1 ~ August 8, 2007 ~ 1:37
Acoustic guitar, keyboards, 5-string bass, MIDI sequencing

I’m intending to be more direct with my musical storytelling on this project than my usual obliquely titled rambling instrumentals, but ultimately, oblique and rambling are inherent parts of my story, so the CD is still bound to have a few tracks in the traditional style. And here we go. Some background: I have long believed (as much as early memories can be trusted) that the very first events in my life that I can remember occurred on my second birthday. As much as I am capable of conjuring a clear mental picture of my 731st day of existence, it went something like this: the delivery men from the furniture store brought my “big kid bed” into the house, much to my delight. Things turned sour, however, when I got up violently ill in the middle of the night and needed to be hospitalized for severe dehydration.

Objectively, I’m sure I have the details all wrong. It’s pretty unlikely that I actually got that bed on my second birthday. I do have two distinct mental images that I’ve carried with me over the years: the movers bringing the bed in the front door, and standing in the darkness in the hallway outside my room, crying for help as I blew chunks. I also know from my parents that I did indeed become violently ill on the night of my second birthday, and I was hospitalized. (There’s a picture of me pathetically looking out from between the bars of the hospital crib with my beloved yellow stuffed bunny at my side… the same one who, in a dream, lost an ear to my scissors-wielding grandmother. I was mad at her for several days, despite the fact that I could plainly see his ear was intact.)

Whether all 3 of these events (the rabbit mutilation nightmare aside) occurred on the same day is a question for the ages. But it makes for a good story. And one that would take much longer than the duration of this brief and inappropriately pleasant song to tell in words. Hence, this is an instrumental.

1978: Saturday Night Pizza

Version 2.7.1 ~ August 7, 2007 ~ 2:36
Keyboards, electric guitar, 5-string bass, MIDI sequencing, vocals

This track is tribute to George’s Pizza, my favorite Greek-style pizza place in my small hometown. I still remember vividly the mood of the place when I was a kid. Dimly lit, courtesy of orange stained-glass wall sconces, with a giant stuffed swordfish on the wall above a jukebox. I remember my dad taking me over to that jukebox one time and listing off the songs for me to pick one. I chose “Stayin’ Alive.” I also remember that George’s was my introduction to the concept of a pun. The backs of their checks had a cartoon drawing of George, with the caption “Seven days without pizza makes one weak.” Classic. I’ve since learned that this was actually the slogan of a famous New York pizza place, and it makes sense that Austin, Minnesota was not the birthplace of such a clever and iconic phrase (although we did manage to come up with Spam).

1979: The Pink Floyd Thing

Version 0.8 ~ August 10, 2007 (posted November 15, 2007) ~ 3:47
Keyboards, electric guitar, 5-string bass, MIDI sequencing

This track is sort of me channeling Porcupine Tree channeling Pink Floyd. It’s nowhere near finished, but it’s still kind of a cool spaced-out groove. It’s inspired by the strange nightmares I suffered for a brief period when I was 5, where I found myself in a strange void where the walls were simultaneously infinitely close and infinitely far. It was then that I first pondered non-existence. It freaked the crap out of me for a long time.

The current version’s guitar track explores new realms in intonation problems. I think I need to put heavier-gauge strings on my new guitar so my bass-style fret technique doesn’t push every note a quarter step sharp.

1980: The Supertramp Thing

Version 0.4 ~ August 10, 2007 (posted November 15, 2007) ~ 3:17
Keyboards, 5-string bass, MIDI sequencing

I’m not sure what event in my kindergarden/first grade life this song is supposed to correspond to, and maybe it never will; I just know it has to be 1980 because I really like the flow from the previous track to this one. This song is only slightly more complete than the previous one (despite the version numbers, which really just represent how many obsessive iterations I’ve fumbled through to this point), and this particular mix is not great; I apologize for the track saturation that mars the sound in spots.