Original Music

4' 33" • I was bored on a business trip, so I recorded this performance of John Cage's 1952 composition in my motel room. I had neglected to bring the sheet music, so I performed the whole piece from memory. All three movements in a single audio file.

Blues For Two Heads • This was a goofy jazz tune I practically wrote on a dare. I'd arrogantly offered to write some music for a friend who had a silent web site - then suddenly wondered if I actually could write something 'on demand'. This was the result.

Cherchez La Femme • I have no idea why I gave the song this title, but it seemed right at the time.

Chick Band Christmas • This was entirely inspired by a voice on my keyboard. The bell-like tone just somehow suggested a holiday tune, and it remided me of a popular girl-band song. I went with it. Now I just need to come up with some lyrics, and it clearly needs an "Ooh ooh" chorus ...

Chuckles • A friend of mine was fooling around on my keyboard. I had the software set to record, and I got this little piano line. He seemed to indicate he was interested in what I'd do with the idea, and this was the result. Since then I've found that his own development of the idea is very different, my own version is way too close to the theme from the old "Batman" TV series ...

Dark And Stormy • Someone posted a request for an original dark, brooding science fiction theme in a newsgroup I used to frequent. That inspired me to write this, but I never got back to the guy. This is one that really suffers in the translation to General MIDI - there's just no match for the weird voices from my Korg.

Feelin' Allright • I've always kind of liked this song, and found I really liked playing it when I used to take a guitar along to parties. Figuring out whether the Traffic version, or the Joe Cocker version had the stronger influence on me is left as an exercise for the listener.

Go For It! • I wrote this back in high school, but never heard it actually played by a band. Now that I have synthesizers I don't even need a band. Since I wrote it originally for a high-school jazz band, I've left a section open for solos.

Go For It! - Garage Band Remix #1 • I finally got around to importing and rearranging Go For It in Garage Band. Added a rhythm guitar to this version. It still needs work, the solo section is still empty, the levels could use some work, but it's a start.

Go For It! - Garage Band Remix #2 • I added some solos, still needs some mixing work.

Great Plains Theme • Another one that I composed with my college punk band, rearranged with iMac GarageBand. The arrangement is a bit crippled by the lack of tempo control in GarageBand, the accelerando/decelerando's have been changed to rather drastic half/double time tempo changes. I never managed the solos with the speed-hammers when playing it live, and usually I'd end up way out of tune after the extreme bends, and I've added sound effects for the intro and outro which were originally just a simple soft-mallet cymbal roll....

Hot Dog • OK, this song was originally Led Zeppelin jamming after hearing way too much USA country music ... as such it is completely atypical of Led Zep, and thus the only Led Zep I ever would cover (Read the sign: No Stairway!!) ... though in this case it's just a MIDI file playing my synthesizer...

New York State Of Mind • It's Karaoke time! This song doesn't have much to do for anything but piano and vocal, and I don't play the piano. Still, after a year or so working in NYC this song was stuck in my mind, so I had to record my take on it. I found a really good midi of the instrumental track, the only thing "me" on this one is the vocal. At this rate, "My Way" and "New York, New York" can't be far behind!

Ph34R M1 Gh3Rk1N • Possibly the only known recording of "Paul and John", who's lives are chronicled in the "Blinktags" webcomic.

Rappin' In Da (Sesame) Hood • I looked around and I couldn't find a midi file of the old Sesame Street favorite "Three Of These Things (Belong Together)" anywhere on the net. I decided it really needed to be done, and it kind of got out of hand. To the best of my knowledge the drum track is not a ripoff of the Clyde Stubblefield "Funky Drummer" riff.

Seaborne • This one starts out as a medly arrangement of public domain tunes with a seafaring theme. You should be able to identify the first two tunes. The chanty it ends with is just me goofing off, so if it doesn't quite sound like what it almost sounds like - that's just my memory playing tricks with my originality.

Shipwreck • I wrote the guitar part for this a long time ago. It always seemed to have a kind of "nautical" feeling, but I could never figure out where it was going. I had the basic structure down and a vague melody, but it still doesn't seem finished. I've tacked on some additional "joke" melody to finish it off, but unless somebody decides to make a specific movie and buys this from me for the theme I still consider this an unfinished work. That will probably make more sense once you hear it.

Soul Catcher • I was deliberately trying to write a Motown kind of tune, but it never quite seemed to jell, this is about as far as I got.

Sundown • I was totally mindfarked by somebody reminding me of a song that was a #1 hit in 1974 ... the only solution was to start working on a cover version. I didn't get very far ...

T F T R Main Title Theme • I spent a lot of time working with a friend on a TV series concept. We got as far as a series concept (based on the work of a popular SF author), one sample script, a meeting with the author, and this theme.

Testify • I was vaguely hung-over and short on sleep heading home from a party in downtown Philly one early Sunday I had the windows open, and I just happened to be passing a Babtist church in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. I was really touched by the joyful music I could hear all the way out in the street. As soon as I got home I wrote out this little rhythm section. I think it owes a little bit of its inspiration to the "The Band!" revelation scene from the Blues Brothers movie as well.

The Imperial Processional • This was written as part of a secret project that will probably never be completed. At times in the past I have jokingly referred to it as my "caucasian medly". I have always thought of it as a celebration of an assortment of European cultures. Now that I've started learning how to play bagpipes I realize I'll have to add grace notes and throws to one section...

Today I Started Loving You Again • This is probably the sappiest thing I ever recorded. I heard this old Merle Haggard tune on the radio one day, and something inside me just screamed out "I've been there, man!" I hunted up the music for it, since I can't play piano that well and it really needed some country piano. Then I recorded it in an afternoon. For what it's worth, the guitar is the first take.

W T F • WTF stands for "What The ?". This little start was just an exercise worked out when I was showing a friend how MIDI worked, and how I went about composing. I'm sure it could go somewhere eventually, but I never took it any farther.

Walk Away • You probably would instantly recognize this 13-second clip. You might have some trouble identifying it as it stretches over four and a quarter minutes.

Windows • I wrote this one when I was in a punk band in college. The original arrangement was drums, bass, and heavily distorted guitar. It didn't even have a title or lyrics back then. I wrote the words later, and completely changed the arrangement...

Windows - Garage Band Remix • I'd just started working with "Garage Band" on my iMac ... This is a remix of the song "Windows" exported from Garage Band - with sax substituting for vocal.

Wink Of An Eye • This was an experiment based upon hearing about "9 Beet Stretch" by Leif Inge. I was slightly less ambitious, here I've stretched a familiar tune from about 1 minute to nearly 17 minutes.

Zippy The Pinhead (Are We Having Fun Yet?) • In my first band in college we had a kind of gonzo drummer who really liked the "Zippy the Pinhead" comics. In practice one day he said something like "We should do a Zippy song". I started whacking the most boneheaded rhythm and the "wrongest" chords I could think of at the time. He dove right in with a brain-dead drum part, and it kind of grew from there. I'm not sure why we gave it the "wipe out" break in the middle - I guess it just wasn't quite wrong enough yet. At the time we were just drums, bass, and guitar - although come to think of it there was some kind of improv chanted vocal thrown in sometimes. I added a lot of synth stuff in this home studio version.