Tripecac - Mix 2 (triton vocal)

This was my first "real" song with lyrics since 1997.

The music is light funk, maybe even easy listening. I wanted something that didn't get irritating over the course of twelve verses.

The lyrics are an "epic" retelling of my musical history. They conclude with the song itself. The last bit is improvised talking. You can barely hear it, and the song fades out in the middle of it, but I've kept the lyrics intact because I like what I was trying to say.

This kicks off the album with fury, wit, and wild vocal effects, much as "Millions of Monkeys" did for The Hermit. It's far more "rock" than anything on Renewal. It tried very hard to inject raw passion and drama into the music (particularly the vocals), and it shows.

The lyrics are about (you guessed it) my dependence upon convenience. I wrote a couple verses and choruses, and then adlibbed the rest. There's often multiple vocal tracks at once, which makes it hard to understand what I was saying. I therefore decided to transcribe the main improvised vocal tracks serially instead of trying to interleave them. Hopefully that'll help add some clarity!

I finished the song exactly a year after I had started "Memorial". It felt like I had come a long way. Sure, my songs were still too long, but at least these were starting to rock.

Woah, vocals! This is the first full-fleged vocal song since "Half Hour". I constructed the main groove and wrote the lyrics for the choruses ("I am bad...") back in 2002. In 2004 I fleshed out the rest of the music and improvised all of the chorus. I have no idea what the title has to do with the lyrics; it probably doesn't matter, since the lyrics themselves are mostly stream-of-consciousness. I really like the way this song turned out. It's a little muffled, but it's fun!

I told G that I'd name this after the next two words she uttered. She said "No", and then "That..." and so there you go.

I started with the drums, and didn't add any other instruments the until the second day. I really didn't like the music, and felt the drums alone were more interesting. To make things better/worse, I added vocals, which were completely improvised. The chorus ties in with the song title. Yeah, I know: what wit!

As an experiment, I grabbed some old lyrics (from 1999) and decided to start a song from them. There were some chord progressions scribbled down too, but I mostly ignored them. So technically, this isn't completely new, but who's counting?

Lyrically, it's a sequel to "The Trap", but is simpler and (hopefully) funnier. I pre-wrote all the words except the bridges, which were adlibs. And no, this is not autobiographical in the least!

The music aims to be simple, short, and (I hope) catchy. Only time will determine whether we (I) remember this as enjoyable or irritating (can anyone say "My Old School"?).

After an egg comes a chick. After a chick come drooling guys. That was the original idea behind this song.

But then it turned into a barnyard horror story. It's ambiguous whether the song's about eating animals or lusting after girls, or, um, lusting after animals. Whatever piques your interest, you know? The lyrics were improvised, and are very dumb. So's the music.

Okay, this song made me hungry. I have to eat now.

The title is a pun on kitty (as in poker) and kitten. This music is a slow guitar/keyboard jam. It has a couple organ solos, but most of it is geared around the vocals.

Lyrically, it's about, um, poker, I guess. Or maybe it's about investments in relationships. Like when you keep giving and giving and you want something in return. Or perhaps it's about a girl who's tired of watching her sibling's children and wants kids of her own.

Or maybe it's an expression of my disgust towards the idea of (unearned) entitlement. An Ayn Randian criticism of welfare, perhaps. Or whatever. Not that any of this has any autobiographical relevance. It just sounded melodic and witty!

Funkorama. I wanted to make this dark and ominous. Is it? It's inspired by a video we saw about a proposed development project.

Is this about procreation? Or just escape? Into juvenilia perhaps?

I turned 33 the day I started the song. Getting old, I guess. Does it sound like it?

I had just finished updating the IPECAC web site. For some reason, I got some of lyrics and the "ding ding ding" chant stuck in my head. I felt compelled to turn them into a song, so here it is: a silly, sloppy ode to IPECAC.

At first it was a capella. I then added the drums and bass line, and gradually filled in bits until it no longer sounded empty (although it still sounds mindless and overly repetitive). I guess that's house most songs are created, right? So no insight here; sorry!

The lyrics exaggerate a bit (like most of mine do). You see, we actually did have friends, and we ultimately chose them (and girls) over IPECAC. Perhaps this song was wishful thinking? You know, like: what would have happened if we had stayed down there in the basement?

I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I'm still down in the basement. But hey, as long as I keep churning out songs (good ones and bad ones like this), the basement's a fine place for me.

This chorus ("second glance") for this song had been running around my head for years. It mimics the rhythm of a Fall song ("Tempo House").

I kept putting off working on it because I wanted to wait until I had a knack for post-punk. I still don't have the knack, but I decided to give it a shot anyway.

It doesn't sound like the Fall, except for maybe the repetition, which I like.

I ended up remixing this song the day after I "finished it". I figured: if any song deserves a second chance, it's this one... right? So I simplified the kick drum, shortened the final chorus, tightened up the drum breaks, and made the clav a little groovier. It feels a little dancier now, which is good. I like dancy.

The title is a pun on "seventh sign". Duh. :)

The lyrics are my reaction to people's feedback about some of my songs. Double-duh. :)

Weird, slow, weird, slow.

Not much else to say about this one. At least not right now. I'm tired.

This is a very loose interpretation of "Ha Ha I'm Drowning" by The Teardrop Explodes. I recorded it for the third Julian Cope tribute album (Triple Vegetation).

By "loose" I mean Tripecac-ish. Repetitive, groove-based, with lots of improvisation. And lots of percussion. And geeky, self-referential gabbing.

Most of the guitar and vocals were recorded first take, with very little planning. I probably spent no more than half an hour recording them. It then took me several hours (spanning multiple days) to arrange and mix them together with the rest of the song.

To make it tie in with the theme of Whatcom Home, I gave it a slightly dark, unbalanced vibe. I don't know if it works or not, but what's done is done, and I'm glad this is finally done!

I figured it's time for some baby steps on the mandolin. This is my first attempt at using it in a Tripecac song. I really didn't (and still don't) know what I'm doing, so bear with me.

I mixed the mandolin and vocals completely dry, as an experiment. I wanted to see how "immediate" I could make them sound. The Triton's sounds all have a usual dose of reverb. The vocals are a little out of sync with the rest of the music part of the time, but that's what I get for singing to the mandolin rather than [just] a metronome.

As for the lyrics, well, lots of people seem to be having babies these days, including celebrities. It seems to be the "cool" thing to do. I wanted to create some cute lyrics exploring the "coolness", all based on a pun (do/due/doo). Hope you like it!

A couple songs ago, I used the mandolin. This time, I wanted to take my acoustic guitar for a whirl.

I sketched out the idea on a cassette a few days earlier (destined for Trex). It was a pure improv, but I liked the energy. So I decided to turn it into a Tripecac song.

The mistake I made with the mandolin song ("Baby Dew") was settling for sloppy timing. So, this time I used both a hi-hat and a thumping kick drum as a metronome while I added the guitar parts. I had to play some bits several times before nailing the timing. It's not perfect, but much better than before.

The lyrics are kinda dumb (since they were mostly improvised), but they're not the point of the song. Neither is accurate playing. The groove is the point. And that's kinda what the lyrics are saying.

I started the lyrics back in 2002 (when I had a concrete floor), edited them in 2004, and then put them to music in 2008. They're not very deep, but they rhyme.

The music was "composed" on the fly. It was, at first listen, catchy enough for me to not mind bending the rules a bit (about composing the words and music beforehand). Unfortunately, I never got around to writing a chorus or bridge, so it's the same thing over and over. I gradually got tired of it. As I always do with "mindless" songs (and mindless people).

In a way, this reminds me of "Red Rumor". I briefly considered adding background talking, but then decided against it. The music just isn't good enough to justify the amount of time it takes to synchronize old recordings to it. Plus, I already created "Red Rumor" once; why do it again?

On the positive side, the lyrics (which are composed) are kinda insightful, and in places, the groove is a kinda catchy. And some of the vocals sound kinda cool. So it's not a complete disaster. More like a pathetic dud.

The first version of this song was recorded for Trex exactly six months before I started working on this remake. The Trex version was airheaded garage rock; this Tripecac version is much darker and trancier.

The lyrics are about getting my first mp3 player up and running. I was testing the voice recording using the improvised song as a guinea pig.

The original version had acoustic guitar, but for Tripecac I switched to electric guitar and played completely different patterns. Really, except for the rhythm of the vocals, it really is a complete different song.

This is one of the few songs which felt better and better to work on each day. Usually I get bored of songs, but this one was a "late bloomer", if that makes any sense.

This is my second attempt at creating Afrobeat.

This time around, I listened carefully to some Fela CDs, and came up with several rules which the first song didn't follow:

1. The key has to be minor (not major).
2. The song has to be modal; the key cannot change.
3. It needs to swing.
4. It needs a spacious bassline, like in dub and reggae.

Hopefully those rules will help give it a more "Fela" feel. If they don't, then I will just have to try, try again!

Again, the title is a play on "Fela Kuti"; I felt like this song was too mellow, too close to easy listening.

This was Giovanna's phrase for some houses on that we saw at the beach. We came upon them abruptly, and as they were up on stilts, they seemed like castles rising out of the sand.

My goal for this album is to try something different engineering-wise with each song. For this one I experimented with effects automation. This was the first time I was able to change the Triton's effects on-the-fly from within Sonar. The differences are subtle, definitely not as groundbreaking or impressive as I'd hoped. Neither is the song itself.

Oh well, we can't expect a whole lot after all this time off. So I'll in invoke my usual motto, which is: I'm leaving plenty of room for improvement in the next song! :)