Vampire Weekend, 70+ New Songs, Summer's End, the Silver Jews

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Forgive me bloggers, it's been weeks since my last post.

But, in my defense, I wrote 50 songs for this year's 50/90 challenge hosted by the fine folks over at fawm.org. I've got an album that's about 80% finished.
I've met a few songwriting goals. This February I wrote a little over 20 in 29 days. That puts my year song count at 70+. Dang. I've never written that many songs in one year's time, but then again, I've never tried until now. Granted, many of the songs will never, ever be on an album, but many will be coming soon to a theater near you.

I've discovered a band that reminds me of an indie rock ska band fronted by Paul Simon. I must have had my head under a rock and missed them. Surely you've heard their hit single? And the band name is just awesome: Vampire Weekend. C'mon! What DO vampires do on weekends?

In other news, the lead singer of the Silver Jews gave quite an interesting interview on the process of writing songs for his album. His a complex and interesting man. And he had an eye transplant too.

It's with a little sadness that I bid farewell to summer. I have quite a bit of freedom to work on music during the summer months, one of the reasons I originally became a teacher. Now I enjoy teaching AND playing music. Any chance I get to do both at the same time, I jump. If you haven't had a chance to catch some of my songwriting tutorials on youtube, you can find the whole lot of them here. The teacher in me had fun.

I'm Covered

"Covering" a song by another artist is simply the process of playing a song that was written by someone else.

Now, if you want to record that song onto a CD, you'll need to read this article.
It's painful. It's not easy. But if you're a musician and you care about being fair, legal, and legit, do yourself a favor and read this.

Clever Joe's Cover Song Advice

This Guy Is Awesome

There's no getting around it. Ronald Jenkees has mad keyboarding skills.
Watch this youtube video and tell me I'm wrong.

:)

How To Write A Song III

These videos are definitely labors of love. They take a lot of work to put together, but they seem to be beneficial...and I'm learning more about Adobe Premiere Elements. Like, it's youtube upload button is a big fat lie. It neither uploads nor goes to youtube. I had to import into MovieMaker...but that's another story unrelated to this.

I wrote THIS song and filmed the whole process.

It's called Except, Perhaps, The Human Heart.
It's not a real upbeat number, but it is a song. And when you need to write 50 songs in 90 days, every little song counts. :)

Naked Baby of Teen Spirit Fame Now A Teen

This just seemed really interesting to me.
I'm sure there's a song in there somewhere.

The article of the boy who's private parts made rock history.

Paul Weseterberg, My Hero, Releases 49 Minutes of Music For 49 Cents

Paul rules.
Period.

I'm listening to his 49 minute track right now. It may have lots of slop, but it's Paul's slop, so it's probably better than most. In fact the first "track", "Terry, Who You Gonna Marry?" is quite catchy.

What a great idea. This is up there with Radiohead's "pay-what-you-want" scheme. Clever.

Write A Song, Then Pass It Around...

I found this at NPR and thought it was incredibly apropos.

Here's a link to the full audio article. It's pretty cool. It sounds a whole lot like what collaborators at 5090.FAWM.org are doing.

Here's the creator's website: Telephono.org

I'm emailing this guy for sure.

Radiohead Makes Video With No Camera

This "video" is pretty cool.
I heart radiohead.

See it here (hosted by Google).

Some Good Reading For Songwriting

Starting with this article in the New York Times songwriting blog Measure by Measure, An Uncommon Thread.

The best of Nerd Rock with Weezer.

A new blog I discovered called Songwriting Zen. He's also a fellow 50/90 participant.

Another 50/90 participant has a great title for her blog...The Shy Singer/Songwriter.

Some tips of Self-Producing Your Own Music.

A 639 Year Performance!

Now, I've been to shows that seemed a little on the long side. Around the bands 2nd or 3rd encore I was heading to the parking lot. But SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTY NINE YEARS!!!

You have to read this article.

That John Cage was one cagey guy.