Click on the thumbnail to view a printable cd sleeve.- Title: Januweary
- Artist: Trex
- Timespan: 2003
- Theme: another January piano practice
- Length: 59:34
- Tracks: 12
- Lyrics: 10
- MP3s: 11 play all locally
- Rating: *** [3] (1 rating) rate this album
Track List
| # | title | lyrics | time | download | listen | started | recorded | rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nothing in D | lyrics | 7:24 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | *** (1) |
| 2 | Verboten | lyrics | 4:42 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | ** (1) |
| 3 | Horrible Execution | lyrics | 5:16 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | **½ (1) |
| 4 | Clunk City | lyrics | 3:38 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | ** (1) |
| 5 | Chaotic Cooking Talk | lyrics | 0:33 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | * (1) |
| 6 | Chaosnorder | - | 12:26 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | *** (1) |
| 7 | Soothing Talk | lyrics | 0:33 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | * (1) |
| 8 | Strengthening | - | 0:32 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | *½ (1) |
| 9 | Always Looking | lyrics | 6:38 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | **½ (1) |
| 10 | Bench Potato | lyrics | 1:30 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | ** (1) |
| 11 | I Am Tired Now | lyrics | 1:48 | download | listen locally | - | 2003-01-21 | **½ (1) |
| 12 | Plans | lyrics | 14:34 | - | - | - | 2003-01-21 | *** (1) |
| Total | 59:34 | play all locally | album rating: | *** (1) | ||||
Notes
This is another collection of piano songs recorded in Bellingham during January 2003. It was a physically and emotionally exhausting time for me; I was between jobs and temporarily uninsured when I somehow developed bronchitis. Ouch! Playing piano helped me kill time and cheer up a little.
Although the tape cover simply reads "January 2003", a journal entry says I played piano on 2003-01-21. Since there's a good chance that was the night I recorded these songs, I'll define that as the official date.
Songs
Nothing in D
- Januweary track 1
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- length: 7:24
- Travis Emmitt - piano, vocals
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
Some bad notes in the middle taint this otherwise semi-interesting medley of improvised ideas. The long second part is a little cheesy.
The title refers to the fact that the piano I was using didn't have a good D key.
Lyrics to "Nothing in D":
tonight i can't play anything in d 'cause d doesn't work on this piano tonight i can't play anything in d and d is the easiest key so i'll have to push myself find another key in which to be la de da da da da da de da
Verboten
- Januweary track 2
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- length: 4:42
- Travis Emmitt - piano, vocals
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
This startys with my annoying southern accent. And then comes some so-so music. Mostly noodling, which turns into arpeggios. Boring arpeggios.
By the way, I think "key of d" refers to a person, in addition to the bad piano key. Coincidence? Maybe. That fact that I didn't switch to a different piano suggests that I appreciated the double-meaning.
Lyrics to "Verboten":
uh huh that's right can't play a single bit tonight why? 'cause i just ain't in the mood to play anything without sounding rude i'll just i'll mimic something and i'll do something i just can't play in the key of d can't play in the key of d because the key of d is verboten today that's the reason the key of d is verboten i must avoid the key of...
Horrible Execution
- Januweary track 3
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- other names: Good Idea Horrible Execution
- length: 5:16
- Travis Emmitt - piano, talking
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
This is a series of bouncy improvised ideas. They're very sloppy, full of bad notes.
Lyrics to "Horrible Execution":
that's called "good idea horrible execution" let's try this again ok 1 2 3 4 yuck
Clunk City
- Januweary track 4
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- length: 3:38
- Travis Emmitt - piano, talking
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
Bunch of very clunky ideas, going nowhere.
Lyrics to "Clunk City":
hmm ew
Chaotic Cooking Talk
- Januweary track 5
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- length: 0:33
- Travis Emmitt - talking
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
This talks about musical chaos as a tool for finding new ideas, and relates it to cooking. Hmmm. Did I mention that I am not a cook?
Lyrics to "Chaotic Cooking Talk":
see the thing is when the tape recorder's rolling there's a certain conventional, um, approach i have to break myself of that habit i can't be conservative i have to be i'll just have to invest a little i just gotta be chaotic it's just like cooking from the chaos and the casualness and the throwing away of the recipe from that something original is created um but you have to be brave enough to throw away the recipe and when the tape recorder's running it means there's someone tasting the food as you cook it um and i just need to be the one that's tasting this i think but i'll just try to pretend the tape recorder's not running so here we go
Chaosnorder
- Januweary track 6
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- length: 12:26
- Travis Emmitt - piano
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
I was trying to demonstrate that I could come up with something interesting out of chaos. This long improv starts utterly chaotic, then develops an familiar order, has some neat bits, but is mostly boring. So: chaos, snore, order. Get it?
Soothing Talk
- Januweary track 7
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- length: 0:33
- Travis Emmitt - talking
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
Talking about soothing music. I was tired. Very tired.
Lyrics to "Soothing Talk":
all right that was totally putting me to sleep i'm like, can barely keep my eyes open 'cause that's just it's very soothing it doesn't sound all that fun to listen to but it's very soothing playing monotonous stuff like that i wish i were better though i wish it were both soothing for me and also entertaining for the listener but it's hard to do that in the evening i usually don't play anything soothing in the evening it's usually just kind of repetitive and these are exercises just kind of strengthening of the fingers
Strengthening
- Januweary track 8
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- length: 0:32
- Travis Emmitt - piano
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
Here I go, strengthening those fingers. This has lots of fast, repetitive playing. The pattern crumbles at the end. My fingers are the equivalent of 130 pound weaklings!
Always Looking
- Januweary track 9
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- length: 6:38
- Travis Emmitt - piano, vocals
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
Choppy piano groove. Almost catchy in parts. Not very soothing, though.
For some reason I started singing. Shortly after, the song collapsed. I've faded out the really bad bits.
Lyrics to "Always Looking":
girl always looking at the ground always looking see what we found always looking always looking at the ground always looking see what we found
Bench Potato
- Januweary track 10
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- length: 1:30
- Travis Emmitt - piano, talking
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
Tired, clunky piano. No groove, no solid melody, no energy.
The title refers to the fact that I was falling asleep on the piano bench in the same way that a couch potato doses off to the drone of the TV.
Lyrics to "Bench Potato":
again i'm falling asleep it's about as hard as watching tv ooh
I Am Tired Now
- Januweary track 11
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- length: 1:48
- Travis Emmitt - piano, talking
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
Rhythmic, semi-melodic lullaby. Sleepy vocals. Just when the piano part started getting interesting, the tape ended.
Lyrics to "I Am Tired Now":
i am tired now i am tired now how am i supposed to be entertaining if i am tired now i am tired now how am i supposed to be entertaining
Plans
- Januweary track 12
- recorded: 2003-01-21
- location: Bellingham
- other names: Plans for the Weekend
- length: 14:34
- Travis Emmitt - piano, vocals
This starts off melodically cheesy in a "My Old School" sort of way (which is not good). I was tired, and not exercising much quality control.
It then turned into an epic semi-autobiographical journal/letter. Weird. Funny at times, but mostly weird. There's lots of profanity.
Lyrics to "Plans":
it's called "plans for the weekend" so making plans for the weekend and then chaos enters then crumple the plans gotta hold onto my mood making plans for the weekend and everything's fragile hold onto my mood hold onto my mood 'cause everything goes s--tty when i'm not in control everything goes s--tty when i'm not in control but we start again making plans for the weekend got 'em nice and organized did a lot of thinking and a lot of planning got plans for the weekend i think it's gonna be nice and guess what happens and then chaos comes back and f--ks everything up la la la la la la la... got plans for the evening we should handle that it's only a couple hours you should be able to spare that got plans for the evening i hope out it turns out nice i've tried very hard to make it work but then comes the chaos external factors out of my control gotta hold onto my mood and keep trying we've got plans for this afternoon we should be able to handle that got plans for this afternoon you should be able to schedule around that oh then all f--k all happens f--kin f--k i'm gonna have to make a sanitary version of this song eventually but let's just start over then making plans for the summer oh it should be real entertaining making plans for the autumn can't wait to spend time with you making plans for the winter bundle up all cozy and then something f--ks them up but i keep trying making plans for next month february should be nice wide open spaces in my calendar got plans for the next month february the lovers' month and i anticipate lots of time to be with you but then everything gets all f--ks up because i am no longer in control at certain times and you get the point of this song, don't you i'm just gonna keep playing because that's how life is god d--n it got plans for the weekend can we handle that got plans for the weekend all i need is just 2 days got plans for the weekend sunny ride in the automobile and guess what guess what guess what happens and everything f--ks up so what happened to the sanitary version of this song i don't know let's try it again just gotta keep on pushing you got plans for tomorrow gotta cook and do errands with you got plans for tomorrow but your chaos is seeping into my life and it's getting hard making plans now because i gotta work around you and it gets harder each time we make plans because i don't have ??? ability to plan ability to plan i can't plan anymore ??? anything everything just breaks down and this is what it's like to be with somebody who cannot hold a plan this is what it's like to be with... somehow i manage to get hold of my thumb and my time and i manage to put some order back into my life and with that order i create another pattern and with that pattern there comes this thing called hope an optimism and i works towards it i works towards it i works towards it and there's a rhythm and i try again even without saying a word to you or conveying any of my plans something destroys my plans and i don't know what it is because you didn't have any influence on it so why did my plan break down well why did it die why did it crumble why did it fall why did my plan break in half what did you do what did i do what did what did what did happen what did what did what did break what did what did what did happen what happened to my nice plan what did what did what did happen what did what did what did break what did what did what did happen to my nice plan to my nice plan what did what did what did happen what did what did why did it break why did it break why did it break my nice plan my nice plan i have loyalty to my plan in my plan i try hard to keep my plan keep my plan i have loyalty to my plan to my plan i try hard to keep my plan to keep my plan what did happen what did happen what did happen why did it break what did happen what did happen what did happen why'd my plan break but somehow i refuse to believe that entropy will win i refuse to believe that chaos will win i refuse to believe that i will ultimately give in i refuse that i will commit that grievous sin of giving up of f--king giving up of f--king giving up of f--king giving up made plans for the weekend i'm gonna f--king stick 'em made plans for the weekend i don't care if you say no got plans for the weekend i'm gonna make them happen no matter what no matter what no matter what no matter what got plans for the weekend gonna try real hard to keep them made plans for the weekend feel it owe it to myself keep my plans for the weekend weekends are mine, weekend are mine in fact every day is mine despite the chaos the days are mine despite the chaos my life is mine my life is mine my life is mine kept my plans for the weekend i'm kinda happy with myself kept my plans for the weekend did everything i wanted to do kept my plans for the weekend chaos and all, warts and all i won my battle and i'll win it again despite the chaos in your life and mine i will win the battle against entropy i said i will win the battle against entropy i said i will win the battle against entropy i said i will win the battle against entropy i f--king will