the Rattling: Recent Episodes
Aaron & Emily
Aaron & Emily write, record, and post an .mp3 a day, often with the help of friends. Indie-pop experiments from Portland, Oregon.
treesap78
emily and i spent a few hours trying to figure out garageband this evening, and we wrote some lyrics for this but decided not to sing them.
your first loss
well, i've pretty much got a full time job now - which is good news.. but it does make it harder to write. and do second takes. ha!
I Might Be A Station Agent
how am i gonna get any of this work done with you distracting me in the background? too much to ignore and you make it oh, such a chore. you push til my anger is found. you push til my patience is drowned and i can barely keep my rage down. a panicky feeling i almost take action but once the word's out i lose traction, back away, and apologize and agonize later about my behavior when really it's yours i despise.
i'm not violent by nature. i just have certain expectations. this can't be settled by arbitration. you are what you are, so am i. for now the boat is leaving the shore with no one aboard. there must be an ocean between us
Details in the Tea
the dreamy end-part in this song has a little Amajor to Aminor chord change, which is always nice.. and it would be a bit cooler with live drums at the end, playing a little jimmy chamberlin style.
Sour Patch Kid
she's a sour patch kid! she's a sour patch kid!
right now emily is working on trumpets for tomorrow's song.
i wrote the bulk of this song this morning, before i went to work.. and when i got back from work, emily had added all the accordion and re-sung everything and put it all together..
ya ya ya
Significant Cuts
this song was written last night, sorta on accident.. it was the very first thing that came out when i sat down with a guitar and some words, and it seemed to work right away. and then i dressed it up this morning. and emily came home and played the crazy march stuff at the end.
anybody ever read Pynchon's Slow Learner? it's a small collection of early short stories.. including one that involves Pig Bodine and a junkyard/landfill adventure with elf gypsies.. or something. i love Pynchon.
this song doesn't really have much to do with that.. except for the elf girl, i guess.
ha!
tiny hand
invitation
i wrote this song last night, in the hour and a half between the end of austin city limits (with jack white) and beginning of SNL, which turned out to be a re-run anyhow.. so i recorded a quick version late last night, and then re-recorded it today. yeehaw.
here's one put together with the help of Wes Shirley.. we got the lyrics outta his little black book of songs. pretty neat.
Nobody Said
this little guy takes a few twists and turns, all in about 2 minutes.. which is a little bit cool. day three!
All Shapes
i thought this song was mostly finished when i took a nap today, and when i woke up emily had transformed it into something much cooler.. more expansive and dramatic. so i guess i should take more naps.
day two! so far so good. also, the weather in portland is very sunny.
an island at least
i just shrugged
try not to read too much
just a little trouble sleeping
a bad dream without any meaning
oh man to be in fashion
having plumb lines to keep..
i saw her through the fences
hiding in leaves
i think i got an answer:
i'll hide her in canyons
build massive defenses
a few feet of peace
we could steal a boat at least
conquer an island
let the ocean's violence set us free
Happy New Year! Special thanks to G. Tony Jacobs for this little gem -- Jerilyn, the first song of oneaday6.
well, i found a local MC here in portland.. and that's super cool, but i only found one.. and in the meantime, i made a few more beats. i think these are 'technically' a bit better than my first round, but they also might be a little less experimental.. they're all in a pretty narrow range of tempo, and i didn't include a lot of the failed attempts..
in fact, you might notice many of them use the same drumbeat (and tempo, more or less..). 'cause i'm such a geek for hiphop right now, i wanted to play around with a few classic break beats, and i think this list of hip hop songs using melvin bliss' synthetic substitution is pretty crazy.. and i know & love quite a few of those on the list.. so i did a few beats using that as a starting point. kinda dorky exercise, huh? oh well.
anyhow, here we go:
checkers
braeburn
harder target
candy apples
colorwheel
daisy
fuji
magic spells
sticky spree
granny smith
mountain size
gala
rose
sour apples
aristotle
aristophanes
vinca
nicomachus
summer
i'm pretty thoroughly wrapped up in my hip hop research project now.. the portland public library is pretty awesome, and has been able to hook me up with album after album - all the kanye, jay-z, wu-tang, dre, etc etc.. i could want, and i've also got spotify, so it's a pretty immersive experience around here.
apollonius
pincushion
archimedes
reluctant robot
tacitus
lots of music going on around here - i'm playing bass with Jenn Rawling (& Basho Parks, among others..) for her CD release party, so that includes some rehearsals, but American Friction is busy right now and the New Mexican Revolution is still gaining steam.. whew.
and yet i only have one heart, and it belongs to these little one minute songs. ha!
copernicus
plutarch
ptolemy
virgil
kepler
sadface. emily is back at work, the rain clouds have returned, the apartment is cold & quiet.
except for all these beats.
copernicus
epictetus
thucydides
knight
rook
i really like some of these more recent ones.. little glitchy drums against the strings are kinda cool. can we combine Radiohead and Dr. Dre somehow? hmm.. i'm also getting better at making smoother loops, which is cool. it doesn't make it any faster or easier, but the final result is nicer.
northside
queen
sophocles
lucretius
hippocrates
well, we took the weekend off to relax, 'cause emily has a four day weekend, but i figured i should start posting some more of them now. mostly 'cause i enjoy the five day work week so much. and also 'cause i've got so many of these little jams on the other computer i'm having a hard time keeping them straight. ha!
galen
euclid
king
equinox
bishop
making beats, yo. sometimes syncing up really different music is kinda maddening.. like tuning a piano or something. yeah. but i'm getting better at knowing ahead of time what might work.. a little bit better.
also, TGIF- 'cause now emily has got a four day weekend.