Back To My (Heavy Metal) Roots

FAWM is in full effect (that's February Album Writing Month, for the uninitiated), and I have been hard at work....on a million other things going on in my life this month.  As such, my musical output has been at a vastly reduced level from where I would like it to be.

However, my vast network of musical collaborators have had much more focused months, and I've been lucky enough to receive several invitations to write lyrics & melodies and sing vocal tracks on other people's songs.  Thank you, collaborators!

Even more fortunately, the majority of these songs have been in the greatest musical genre known to man:  Heavy Metal.  I was a huge metalhead starting in around 8th grade and continuing pretty much through the end of high school, with occasional bouts in my adult life (you can't ever really shake the metal bug once it bites you with its gleaming steel mandibles, etc.).  I count myself as a very lucky man to have such talented friends and collaborators that I'm able to make the dreams of my 15-year-old self come true, namely, by singing lead vocals on 2 bitching metal tracks.

Presented here for your enjoyment:

Formal Commitment To Satan
Music, Production, Concept: John "Das Binky" Argentiero
Lyrics, Vocals:  Jordan Hirsch
Lyrics posted at FAWM.org

To quote John:  "This is a song about selling your soul to the devil, but it really gets into the details."

Your Disease
Music, Production, Growling: Peter "Sapient" Watkinson
Lyrics, Vocals:  Jordan Hirsch
Lyrics posted at FAWM.org

This is a song that gets written when the songwriter and everyone he knows has been battling a nasty cold for weeks.


Truly, I am blessed by Satan (who else?) to have musical collaborators who can shred so hard.
Rock on.

An Album Worth Buying

Do people still pay money for music?  I know the prevailing opinion these days is that they don't, but I'd like to make a case for bucking that trend.  And that case is:  my amazingly talented friend John has made an album.  And you should buy it, not only to support a great independent artist, but also because I sing 3 tracks on it!

John and I have been musical collaborators for almost 20 years now, and I couldn't be prouder to get to sing 3 of his wonderful songs.  This album is truly a labor of love, and I'm proud to be a part of it.  You can hear my tracks below (I also sing backup vocals on some other songs on the album, and I play keys on "My Country," to which I also contributed some lyrics).  If you like what you hear, please support John and go buy the album.  You'll be glad you did.
 

MTV, Here I Come

I've posted here before about my good friend and musical collaborator John "Das Binky" Argentiero.  Well, John's releasing his first album later this month, and he was kind enough to invite me to sing lead vocals on three of the tracks (and backup on a couple others).  The first "single" he's "releasing" (not entirely sure those terms still apply in this modern age, but still) is called "My Country Tis Of Me", and I think it's a pretty good one.  John wrote it for FAWM 2010 and I contributed a small portion of the lyrics.  I also play keyboard on this one and sing all the vocals.  John's on guitar, bass, drum machine, and nearly everything else (the talented Nancy Rost is on accordion), plus he recorded the whole thing at home.  I think that's pretty impressive.

Anyway, he asked me to participate in the video for this new hit single, and you can see the results below.  It's an homage to the Great American Couch Potato (including sweatpants!).  And yes, that is my real universal remote making a cameo in the video.  Enjoy, and be sure to check out the Das Binky site and buy the album when it drops on January 26!  (You can sign up on the web site to get an email reminder.  Do it, musicians love email signups.)

Still More Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck

SK Holiday Open House by flickr user vastateparksstaff

"Christmas music."  "Holiday tunes."  "Mind-numbing winter-themed muzak pabulum."  Call it what you will, our ears are subjected to a lot of crap every winter.  Well, Wired For Music is here to help, with yet another edition of our patented "Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck" playlist.

This year's playlist has some songs that a lot of you will probably already know, but I've had enough people ask me about them in the past that I finally decided to put them on.  Hopefully there'll be some surprises on here too for more "advanced" listeners, whatever that means.  And it even features one song I swore I would never, ever include (it grew on me).

Enjoy, and be sure to check out the playlists from previous years!

1. Dean Martin - A Marshmallow World
   "The King of Cool" gives us his take on this sugary classic.  Dean's version was never as popular as Bing Crosby's, but it does feature some of his trademark near-drunken slurring, particularly on the last verse's "take a walk-with-yourfav-or-itegirl."  This song makes me wish it was snowing right now.
2. Gruff Rhys - Slashed Wrists This Christmas
   This is the first track of the Super Furry Animals' frontman's brilliantly titled "Atheist Xmas EP."  It's a bit repetitive, but then, so this this whole season, isn't it?
3. The Futureheads - Christmas Was Better In The 80s
   Not entirely sure why these guys are so nostalgic given that I think they're younger than I am, but it's still a great song.  Apparently it's a big deal in the UK to release a single at Christmas time, which explains the existence of a few tracks on this playlist.  Some of them work out great, and others...don't make it to this playlist.
4. The Gasoline Brothers - Hungover Boxing Day
   This Dutch band really nails that feeling of waking up on Boxing Day and realizing - wait, what the hell is Boxing Day?  Europe is weird.
5. Badly Drawn Boy - Donna and Blitzen
   This song definitely sounds like it was written a few days before the deadline for getting on the Xmas single charts or something like that.  The lyrics read like he was doing a holiday-themed Mad Libs and just plugged in words like "sleigh ride" and "reindeer" here and there.  But the music saves it, especially those massive timpanis.
6. Marvin Gaye - Purple Snowflakes
   Nothing says Christmas like (a presumably high) Marvin Gaye singing about "purple snowflakes" while his backup singers sprinkle phrases like "chestnuts roasting" and "tootsies toasting" all over the place.  This song is ridiculously good, and his voice is just angelic.
7. Okkervil River - Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas
   I can't decide if this is more depressing than Tom Waits's "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis" (featured on 2008's playlist), but it's damn depressing regardless.  Seriously, go read the lyrics, I'll wait.  Can you imagine if Jeff Tweedy still wrote songs like this?  Wow, that would be awesome.
8. Morphine - Sexy Christmas Baby Mine
   Still not depressed?  Listen to a dead man croon "Merry for you. Not too merry for me./I want you here with me. Misery loves company."  You're welcome.
9. The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
   I resisted this song for the past 5 years - in fact, I really hated it until late last year when it suddenly just clicked for me.  I don't know if it's living in New York or what, but one of my most-hated Christmas songs ever has finally wormed its way into my heart.  This one's a classic that I'm sure you've heard a million times, but it still belongs on this playlist.  
10. Barenaked Ladies - I Saw Three Ships
    Just a pretty little palate cleanser.  They really should have let Steven sing first, but that's being nitpicky.
11. Lord Nelson - A Party For Santa Claus
    Feeling chilly?  Let the hot island rhythms of Tobago (by way of Brooklyn) of this little ditty warm you up (or go drink some cocoa, I don't care).  I like the message of this song - how come no one ever gets presents for Santa?
12. The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick
    Of course The Beach Boys would write a song about Santa's sled.  This song is stupid, but I love it.  And it features the brilliant line: "Christmas comes this time each year."  Deep.
13. Aimee Mann - I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas
    A happy little song about getting off the ol' drugs for Christmastime.  Isn't that sweet?
14. Ella Fitzgerald - Good Morning Blues
    Leave it to Ella to have a bad time at Christmas.  "Don't send me nothing for Christmas but my baby back to me" - it's a great time of the year to be alone, isn't it?
15. dj BC - Waltz Of The Flowers (reflower)
    An interesting mix of a classic, from dj BC's "A Very Re:Composition Christmas."  Lots of interesting stuff on that album, it's really worth checking out if you like classical music, remixes, or both.
16. The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight)
    A message of love and peace for the holidays from Joey Ramone.  [Presumably he and the person to whom he was singing were allowed to resume fighting on Boxing Day.]
17. Kanye West ft. CyHi Da Prynce & Teyana Taylor - Christmas In Harlem
    Despite famously being from Chicago, which does not include Harlem, Kanye does a serviceable job with this sequel to Louis Armstrong's "Christmas Night in Harlem" (featured in 2008's playlist).  I think the best verse here belongs to CyHi Da Prynce, who raps in character as Santa Claus.  This song gets extra credit for the part at the end when Teyana Taylor starts singing the melody of "Strawberry Letter 23."
18. Milly & Silly - Getting Down For Xmas
    Looking at Santa's outfit, I'd say that playing funk music at this time of year is pretty much a no-brainer.
19. Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop
    These guys really do a great job with the whole "suicidal but catchy" thing.  Sample lyric: "Oh it's Christmas so we'll stop/'Cause the wine on our breath puts the love in our tongues/So forget the names/I called you on Christmas Eve/In fact forget the entire year/Don't reflect just pretend and you won't feel scared."  Yikes.
20. David Bowie & Bing Crosby - Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy
    For a song that was conceived of, written, rehearsed, and performed in a little over an hour, this is pretty amazing.  If you haven't heard this before, you're probably going to like it.  I think it's all the more incredible considering the backstory (see link above).
21. Lovebyte - Auld Lang Syne
    I actually cut another electronic instrumental song off this list, but I just had to give a nod to the robot inside me with this overly upbeat, bizarre version of the New Year's classic.
22. Sarah McLachlan - Song For A Winter's Night
    Sarah McLachlan's take on Gordon Lightfoot's beautiful little song is spare and beautiful, and I find it really evokes the feeling of a cold winter's night effectively.  Great harmonies, too.

Like the list?  Download it!  [you can now download previous years' lists, too!]

Hungry for more?  Check out some of these awesome holiday playlists:

• Annals of Spacetime
• Fuel/Friends
• ilovethis
• Wired For Music

What are you listening to this holiday season?  Tell me in the comments, and have a happy December!

Reading Roundup

Before I leave town for a few weeks (pity me, I'll be in Hawaii), I figured I should leave you all with something to read.  Here you go!

• Fingertips Music has an interesting essay about the "social music fallacy."  I think the author makes a great point: sharing music is meaningful when it's done between friends with common musical interests; it's spam when you're simply seeing what everyone's listening to in your Facebook feed.
  
  
• For those of you who disagree with the above article and are ready to start sharing your every listen on Facebook, check out evolver.fm's "Beginner's Guide To Facebook Music."  I don't really like Facebook's branding of this - this isn't "Facebook Music" so much as "Facebook updates about music to which people are listening through other platforms."  Still, this is a good guide if you want to have your FB friends list appear in Spotify, but don't want to share every damn track you listen to.
  
  
• Speaking of evolver.fm, they have a good writeup of the new metadata-driven music app Drinkify, which promises to help users decide what to drink based on what they're currently listening to.  (Apparently a neat Hendricks Gin with pickled carrot garnish would be the perfect complement to this Youth Lagoon album I'm listening to as I write this. Sounds right to me.)
  
  
• Drinkify was only one interesting app to come out of a recent Music Hack Day in Boston. Check out the Echo Nest's roundup of the hackage, and be sure to play around with the "Bohemian Rhapsichord" (Chrome only), a crazy little app that lets you play and combine samples from "Bohemian Rhapsody" to create something entirely new.
  
  
• Music Hack Days are great for getting ideas off the ground, but of course it's once they really take flight that things get interesting.  Public media stalwarts KCRW & PRX have created a high-flying iPad app called "Music Mine" which represents "an ambitious bid to improve the experience of music discovery online."  Anyone want to buy me an iPad so I can write a review?
  
  
• And finally, if (like me) you're in need of a new pair of headphones to wear while you play with all this great music stuff, check out Gizmodo's guide to the best budget headphones (helpful when gift-shopping for your local music/tech blogger!).

Happy reading/listening, and I'll see you all in December.