Tripecac - Jaminy

I think someone was PMSing. It might have been me. The drums and solos are from 2005; the rest is relatively untouched. It seems like the worst moods yield the best songs!

Ahem. I, uh, guess someone (certainly not me) was, um, well, you know, percolating. The song doesn't really fit the title; it's anything but airy. My main efforts in 2005 were clearing up the mix (it was a little cloudy) and adding the solos and dub sections.

I guess I was putting in a lot of overtime when I started this. It sure sounds like I was exhausted; there's very little creative energy here. My 2005 edits were similarly uninspired; I guess the lack of enthusiasm was contagious. Some of the solos (and crazy toms) show spasms of life, and the ending is unique, but overall this song is brain-dead.

Something was dying. Was it my car? My computer? A spider? A bum under the bridge? The song itself is actually pretty lively. Sure, the groove and solos are formulaic to the max, but hey, at least it's not a dirge.

I think I named this after winning a tax-related claim. It starts off slow, like cheesy 80s rock. I added the aggressive parts in 2005. For some reason I could never get it to sound as good on speakers as in headphones. Oh well. One of these days I'll create a good-sounding instrument and effects template and then stick with it for an entire album. That way I won't have to mix!

I started this on the first of June, 2003. It had an interesting melody, but the groove was bland. In 2005 I spiced it up a lot, making it funkier and denser. This is pretty much the story of Tripecac these days; I find something with a hint of a unique idea, spend a couple hours cleaning and expanding it, and then call it "done". There are no radical reorganizations or completely fresh ideas. Nothing is being done from scratch. Everything's done in baby steps. If the original idea is mediocre (as this one was), the end result is tethered to that mediocrity by my unwillingness to take risks.

I started this the same day as "June". It's named after the dog on the cover of Baby Talk, whom I enjoyed walking. Like Sadie, this song is very mellow and gentle, almost romantic (compared to the rest of Tripecac). There's not much of a funk factor, and the bass didn't mix well (oh yes, it's the bass's fault, not Trav's, never Trav's!!!), but there are some nice chords buried in there. Cheese. Did I say cheese? This song is cheese!

What was I trying to mop up? A mess in the kitchen? The last few bad guys in a game? The boringness of the previous songs? I don't remember. Let's go with "the boringness of the previous songs".

Like "Glued", this ditches the old song templates and tries to be more "in your face". It's repetitive and weird, very weird. It was really hard to solo to it, mostly because I had no idea what key it was in.

Bed time was supposed to be 8 PM. Every day I looked forward to 8:01. Although it rarely happened that everyone was in bed by 8, the nice thing is that just having a deadline made me focus on music. This song seems to benefit from the time pressure. Unfortunately, most of the drums are a bit muffled (but the hi-hat is crisp). Time pressure dictated that I not spend too long polishing the mix.

So is time pressure good or bad? For creativity, I think it's good. For engineering, I think it might be bad. Which is more important: creativity or engineering? For Tripecac, creativity is key. Actually, productivity is primary, creativity is secondary, and engineering is tertiary. Money and fame are N-ary, where N is the number of albums I'll finish before I actually (gasp) sell a CD!

Did I only have fifteen minutes for music that night? Or was bedtime postponed until 8:15? No, I don't think it was anything as clever as that: I think I simply named the song after the day I started it (the 15th of August). Sigh.

Unfortunately, the music is equally uninspired. It tried to be a long jam, but was so sloppy and painfully mediocre that I left it somewhat undercooked in 2005. Sure, I cleaned it up a bit, added bongos, and tried to improve the mix, but couldn't erase that cardboardy taste that permeates it. File under: "eat to live".

I guess the kitchen fuse blew shortly before I started this song. It blew again the day that I resumed work on it in 2005. Coincidence? Or just boring Travis-trivia ("Travia")?

Well, the "funny" thing is that as I was recording the song a day later, the music PC's UPS actually started beeping. No, a fuse hadn't blown; the wall outlet was just being finicky. I jiggled the UPS's plug and the beeping stopped.

Anyway, as for the music, this is one of the few Tripecac songs that swings. I mixed with headphones, which is a faux pas. My excuse was that it was Friday, with everyone here, and I didn't feel like blasting the music. My other excuse was that I wanted to see if mixing with headphones would really ruin things; the last song ("Fifteen") was mixed with speakers and it sounded pretty bad (to my ears). Maybe headphones would help?

Well, I won't find out until I listen to the mp3 and cd a few times. By that point, I'll probably be too wrapped up in other songs to remember to come back and edit this description. Or maybe if I do remember to update this, it'll be on a day when the kitchen fuse blows again.

We were invited to a Christmas party (in 2003). I didn't want to go. I felt like a party pooper.

Shortly around that time, I started this song. I think I made it peppy in an attempt to get myself psyched up for the party. It's repetitive (what Tripecac isn't?), but it has a decent (though predictable) chord progression and builds nicely in parts. The solos have good energy too. Overall, I give it an D-minus, rounded up to a B for the super-clever title.

Oh yeah... we ended up going to that party. I didn't have much fun. Even when I was there, I still felt like a party pooper. I just couldn't relax or appreciate the company of strangers. When we got back home and cuddled up on the couch I felt a million times happier!

I started this on Christmas Eve 2003. The title is a combination of Christmas Eve and "Ho Ho Ho", and also a pun on "heave ho". Funny, huh? Ha ha ha!!! (or rather, "Ho ho ho"). Oh man, I'm on a roll!!!

The music strives to be Christmassy. One of the clav solos has a "Joy to the World" teaser in it; actually, it's more likely a reference to the Christmas song on IPECAC's Leaping Leper Limousine, which rips off the same melody.

The underlying trancy groove is okay. It's, what do you call it, "meditative". Or whatever. Okay, enough rambling, on to the next song!

I only started two songs in 2004. This was the first one. It's pretty mindless. The kick drum is obnoxious. Thankfully, I kept the song short.

The title is a pun on "free weight"; I guess I was going to the gym back then. I was also probably waiting for somebody, and had some free time to allocate to music. I don't know what the weather effects have to do with the title. Sorry I can't think of anything more interesting to say!

This was the first song I started with Sonar 4. I was experimenting with MIDI groove loops.

I finished the song very quickly in 2005. The vocals are silly, but add some spice to an otherwise dull-as-a-dent-on-a-doorknob ditty.