Ellie's Birthday Songs 2005 and 2006

There are so many new things that I want to post but just don't have on my home computer yet. I recently discovered some old recordings that my friend Czahr and I made back in the early 90s, but I have to convert the original 4-track cassette mixes to a computer friendly format. Ambition Recliner, my new project with Czahr and Kemmer, has about 10 songs that will be posted once they are in a more finished state. The Danforths are almost done with "Amphibian," but I dare not leak any actual tracks from that yet. Sugoi! has been working on new material and have started to make some really awesome room recordings that should be postable soon. I'm even going to jam on the bass with a sweet local band, so if that works out I'll have some completely different music to share as well. But for now, none of it is on my computer.

What I do have are the first 2 birthday songs I recorded for my wife Ellie. A few posts back, I put up the most recent birthday song I made for her, so I figure I might as well share the preceding installments. Mind you, these are songs for my wife, so lyrically they may come off a bit cheesy or trite. These are love songs of course, which is not my specialty. Mr. Christopher Danforth was instrumental in the creation of these tunes. Those of you who are familiar with his work will no doubt be able to pick out his contributions. I recommend listening through headphones to get the full effect.

The top mp3 player is the 2006 song. The bottom one is the 2005 song. I hope you like them.

(It's Hard To) Watch Something Die - demo

One of the music projects I am involved with is called The Danforths. We have been working on a new cd, tentatively titled "Amphibian," for the past year or so. I am very excited about this project, because I have had the opportunity to write some of the songs.

Attached is the demo I recorded for a song called "(It's Hard To) Watch Something Die." This version is just a rough cut I recorded using an old baritone ukulele and bass guitar. The album version will be greatly elaborated from this simple beginning. Nonetheless, you'll get the basic gist of the song.

I Can't Post Music

So I've been posting music using this service called "Fandalism," which is supposed to be like a "You Tube" for music. It allow users to upload their own music and provides html code that you can put into your blog or website. As of late, this "Fandalism" website has not been functioning, so I have been unable to post any of my tunes. I will find another solution eventually.

In lieu of any new tunes, I figured that I might as well at least talk about music. The other night I experienced something notable to write about, the Bon Iver show at the Turf Club. All the hype aside, it was honestly one of the best show experiences I have had in a long time.

I first heard about Bon Iver a while back from my homie Jay Peterson. Jay's one of those guys (not that you all don't know him) who always seems to have the inside track on the best new music. He's the guy who first turned me onto Beirut, which is one of my favorite bands, and he never fails to deliver the goods. So when he told me about this Bon Iver character, I assumed it was good. I think he offered to burn me a copy, but I never got around to getting it from him.

Eventually I heard old Mr. Iver (yes, I know that's not his real name - I'm being funny), either through Jay or Bolsch or one of the bros. It was right up my alley: earnest but not hoakey, minimal but not sparse, intense but not over-done. Most of all, I liked his voice. He sang in falsetto with strength. It wasn't light and weak but haunting.

As time passed Pitchfork gave the Bon Iver album a favorable review, and the Current started playing him. I started hearing him a lot and hearing about him a lot. So when I heard that he was going to play a show at the Turf Club, our local stomping ground, I knew that it would be a rare opportunity to witness something cool before the shit really hit the fan.

Sure enough, when the day of the show rolled around I heard that it had already sold-out. This was unbelievable, because they never pre-sell tickets for the Turf. It's a local bar venue! Anyway, I was covered because I was going with Tom Kemmer. He works there occasionally (I use that word very loosely), but mostly has just befriended the entire staff. We pulled up to see a line of people standing at the door that stretched down the block. That's crazy enough, but keep in mind that this is January in Minnesota and it's fucking 10 below zero outside! Not to worry, Kemmer and I walk right past the crowd and right into the front. We didn't ever have to buy a ticket! You've gotta love getting hooked up.

Hook-up aside, the show was sweet. Two things stick out in my memory that really impressed me. When Bon Iver was about to begin his set, a hush fell over the capacity packed Turf Club. I've never seen that happen, and I've been to 4,879,543 shows there. Kemmer's been to close to 10 million shows there, and he hasn't witnessed it either.

The other thing that was crazy was the fact that he effectively pulled off a sing along. When he performed his song "The Wolves Act I and II," he prompted the crowd to sing a specific part later on in the song. I grew concerned. The old "sing this with me" schtick always fails, at least at the shows I've seen. A few die hards sing their guts out and look like dumb asses, while the rest of the venue looks on in disgust. This time it worked. Once Bon got to the appropriate section of the song, the Turf erupted into a chorus. It wasn't quite a bar full of drunken Irishmen bellowing along with "O' Danny Boy," but it was widespread and moving. People were so engaged by what he was playing that they actually wanted to take part in it more than they worried about what the folks around them would think.

Well, it's not like Bon Iver needs any help in the hype department, but the show was awesome. I fully recommend him, if you like that kind of thing.

Old School

ellipses by Ambition Recliner

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Back in my high school days, my good friend Eric Scott (a.k.a Czahr - not to be confused with a czar or a zahr) and I would occasionally hole up in his basement with ice cold Coke and a scissor cut pizza and proceed to make crazy recordings on his cassette 4-track.

This hollowed tradition continued into our college years. Czahr and I got together annually and re-visited our process. Despite the fact that I resided in the alcohol soaked tundra of Fargo/Moorhead and he called the St. Cloud (and eventually twin cities metro) area home, we managed to re-connect over some form of imported beer and recorded songs on his newer and better 4-track.

Now Czahr and I are old, married, and slower than we once were. We can't stay up as late as we used to back in the "good old days." but now we have technology. It's nothing fancy mind you, but we have basic multi-track recording available to us finally, and it's a lot of fucking fun.

We get together once a week and lay down a track in a few hours. It is what it is. It's not meant to be a completed song or a fully realized idea necessarily. Sometimes it is. Other times it's just a great beginning. Either way, I can't think of anything I enjoy more than being able to create music with one of my best and oldest friends.

This is a song of Eric's to which I added a very crude initial idea. I wanted to post this, because I really like Eric's song. This is simply the result of one quick evening, but there will be more to come.

Sugoi! Tune

Here's a tune from my band Sugoi! (Not to be confused with the jam band Sugoi, the bike clothing company called Sugoi, or the German band Sugoi.)

Our Mission Is Hope by Sugoi!

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Song For my Wife's 32nd Birthday

You by Neil Ogura-Fasen

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For the past three years, I have written and recorded a song for my wife as a gift for her birthday. In previous years I have done this with the help of my good friend Chris Danforth, a man I have played music with for over 10 years. This year I was able to create the song completely by myself, thanks to the fact that we now have a computer with recording software (Cool Edit Pro) at our practice space.

I wrote and recorded this song in a day, but I think it turned out alright.