This time I decided to try my hand at a cover. I think the results turned out well enough (vocals excluded), especially seeing as I’ve felt like vomitting for the last two days (today included.) So, please join me in appreciating the lesser-(and I use that word in the least powerful sense) known works of John Lennon…
Love – John Lennon
If you are reading this blog, either 1) you know me personally or discovered me on YouTube, Twitter, etc. during an early stage of my online presence, or 2) I’m already Internet-famous and you’re stalking me by reading back on my old entries. If the first situation is the correct one, then you obviously know that I’m from California. If the second is the situation in which you are reading this then hey, guess what! I’m from California! You learn something new every day!
Now, as of this writing I am attending school in Tacoma, Washington, which clearly means I left California. But, if you’ve read the previous post of mine, I’m feeling kind of nostalgic. The weird thing is, I’m not feeling nostalgic for Southern California at all; instead, I miss Central and Northern California. Now, if you aren’t from Southern California, or California in general, you might not really understand the distinction between the three parts of the state. I’ve provided this handy-dandy map to show you the areas that I currently long to visit again versus the part of California I’d rather avoid for the majority of my remaining life:
As you can see, the area marked with an “X” is the part of California I designate as Southern California (although anybody familiar with the geopolitical boundaries of this state will remark upon how Southern California is much larger than that, and includes Ventura County, which I have roped into the upper portion of the state. To those people, I say, “Fuck off.”)
You may wonder I why I demonstrate such hostilities towards Southern California. There are quite a few reasons, actually, but I’ll only hit upon a few of them.
1. Los Angeles
Fuck Los Angeles. Los Angeles is perhaps the worst city on the entire West Coast (unless you include Tijuana as part of San Diego, which it is, but even then at least Tijuana has a significant lulz factor that places it above Los Angeles.) The city is an endless mess of entirely unplanned communities with no green-belts and a river you can’t even swim in without risking infection. You can’t even see the North star at night due to the immense light pollution, and, oh yeah, the smog is so intense that you can’t even see the giant mountain range that is right next to the city.
Bullshit.
2. Water?
People in Southern California love water. And why shouldn’t they? Water is the reason we’re all here, after all. It keeps us cool when it’s hot outside, it keeps us alive when we’re dehydrated, and it keeps us comfortably warm when we shower in the morning. It seems perfectly logical to love it. Problem is, there is no water in Southern California. Well, at least there’s no naturally occurring water. We steal all of our water from Colorado. We’ve been in a drought for years and yet the people of Southern California continue to waste water as often as possible, whether it be through watering their Hummers or filling up swimming pools in every backyard despite the fact that nearly everybody in the state lives next to the largest ocean on the planet. Imagine how the people in Colorado feel.
Seriously?!
3. Nobody Should Be There Anyway
This kind of ties in to the previous reason, but Southern California is a continuation of one of the largest deserts in the country. The Los Angeles metropolitan area, which spans from around Ventura County to around San Diego/Tijuana is the second highest populated area in the nation. And nobody should live there in the first place. There is no naturally occurring water. It’s a desert. Why the hell is everybody there?! And I mean everybody. Actors, musicians, socialites, corporate figures. Everybody. It. Doesn’t. Make. Any. Sense.
Now, that’s enough of my bitching about how terrible of a place Southern California is. Why do I miss Northern and Central California? Well, I’ve been to Central quite a few times in my life, and I lived in Northern very briefly (if you’ll recall, I mentioned in my last post that I lived in Sacramento.) The culture is just so much better than this rampant consumerist car-based community that has taken over the South. It’s honestly really difficult to put into words why exactly I miss the upper parts of the state. I suppose I’ll dedicate a separate post to it later. Yeah, this just ended up being a rant. Oh well. Tootles.
I’m entirely unsure of what the contents of this post will end up being, but I’m going to write this nonetheless. I guess it will just be stream-of-consciousness, which I’m fine with.
I’m feeling nostalgic, which happens rather frequently, but I’m starting to have realizations about my life. For the past few years I’ve been the kind of person who tries to separate his past from his present, which usually involved me getting rid of things and trying to “start anew”, if you will. Lately though, I’ve had a certain longing for my past, which I’m sure most people around my age are also experiencing currently, especially people in this generation. I’m a highly logical person, and I really don’t run off of my emotions, so I’m sort of analyzing my own longing. Now, I know that there really is no such thing as a “simpler time.” Life is always complicated and chaotic, but I yearn for my old naive thought processes. Put as simply as possible, although life is never simple, I miss thinking that it ever was.
Most people, or at least most people I have met, seem to share a common problem in adjusting to college life: missing home. I’m not one of those people, but it’s mainly because I don’t really have a sense of “home.” I know that sounds entirely depressing, but I don’t view it as a negative. On the contrary, I believe the fact that I don’t really long to be “home” has helped me adjust to many changes in my life throughout the course of the last few years. I never really stayed in one place as a kid. Hell, I don’t think I can even count the amount of times I’ve moved to a different house or a different city on both of my hands, and that’s only including the times I remember. The longest I ever lived in one place was between 2000 and 2007, and even that wasn’t exactly constant. But I honestly appreciate that that is the kind of life I had. I’ve experienced a lot, and if anything I’ve at least found that I sure as hell know California really well.
This really is more of a spiel than a rant, and even then it’s rather pointless. Perhaps I’m just delaying the annotated bibliography I’m supposed to be writing, but even if that’s the case it’s nice to write about this.
Anyway, my nostalgic sense isn’t really me missing “home.” Rather, I miss people from various locations throughout my life, with no specific location taking president over the other. I guess I mostly miss time periods. Although my high school experience was complete and utter shit, I miss the deceptive simplicity of the friendships and living situation I had during that time. I especially miss my middle school days, when I truly began to develop into the person I identify myself as now. (I’m the kind of person who believes that you go through certain phases in your life that are more similar to becoming a complete different person who is living a completely different life than just growing up, but I suppose I can contribute that to my constantly changing living situations, which I suppose has always given me a sense that life is a series of phases.)
Seeing as I’ve hinted at the fact that I’ve lived in a variety of locations throughout my life, I suppose I’ll list a few cities I remember living in, in the order that I at least remember living in them (I like to believe that I have a fantastic memory, and usually this belief has proven itself true, but I’m also a human being…)
- Long Beach, California
- Cypress, California
- Sacramento, California (briefly)
- Belleview area, Washington
- San Diego, California
- Cypress, California (again)
- San Diego, California (again)
- Poway, California
- Costa Mesa, California
- Long Beach, California (again)
- Cypress, California (again again)
- Tacoma, Washington
Mind you, these are just the times I remember moving. If I really wanted to delve into my memory, I suppose I’d be able to tag the years that I lived in these locations too, but that’d probably be far more confusing and tasking for me than just listing the locations themselves. Also, I do suppose that if I were to label any place as the area that I have a sense of “home” it would be Long Beach, but the place I truly associate with Long Beach is an apartment I used to live in (I’ve actually lived in that same apartment twice. It was one of the first places I ever lived, when I was extremely young, and it is where I lived for a large amount of time between 2000 and 2007.) Still, that apartment is no longer a part of my life, and I can’t really return to it, so it doesn’t make much of a difference to me.
Anyway, I guess this all ended up being a kind of rant about my lack of a sense of “home.” Don’t get me wrong: I honestly am fine with the fact that I don’t have this sense of “home”, but I find it fascinating. I find myself to be an interesting case study. Strange, I know.
Alright, that’s all for now. I should probably start this bibliography.
I was recently interviewed by a good friend of mine, Nick Houghtaling. The interview obviously concerns my music, so if you’re interested in that kind of thing I highly suggest checking it out. You can read it by clicking here.
In other news, I’m going to be perfoming at an Open Mic Night in my house’s basement later this month (on the 30th, to be exact.) Chances are you don’t attend the same school as me, which is makes this information pretty much useless to you. Seeing as I don’t want to be a tease, I’ll try and get my song(s) on film and post them on YouTube, and, obviously, here.
On another note, I’ve been rather sick lately, so I don’t expect to record for at least a few weeks. So, unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to pump out the rest of the album next weekend. Oh well…
Hey, folks. I wanted to let you know that for the time being I am releasing 4 of the 7 tracks from Mental Breakdown for free! You can find them on my BandCamp page, or by clicking on the Downloadable Music tab above. I’m super-ultra-excited about this, because I’m very proud of the work I’ve put into these four songs. Please check them out, and feel free to show them off and distribute them.
The tracks I’ve released are the first three and the fifth:
Amber Skies
Voyage of the Argo
Monster
The Memories of Another Life
Of course, seeing as these are free copies, I’m not holding them to a completely strict rule of not being editted sometime in the future. If I feel like I forgot to do something to these, or that I need to rerecord certain aspects, I will, and without warning.
Anyway, please feel free to give them a listen and/or a download. Thank you!
Alright, so I’m finished recording nearly half of the album. I’m still working on the song order, and I’m leaving slots open if I decide to write more songs. As of right now it appears that there will be a grand total of seven songs on this album, which isn’t much at all, but I feel like the line-up will be pretty solid. The styles are pretty eclectic, and although most of the song is depressing as hell, some of the songs are quite poppy (while still being depressing, I guess.) I can at least guarantee that there is one mindlessly-fun pop song on the album.
Here’s a peak at the album artwork I’m planning on using at the moment. Of course, it is subject to be completely replaced, as I probably won’t have this album out before December.
I’ve decided to also give you the tentative track listing of the album. Ignore the “???” slots, as those are songs that I have not decided upon yet:
- Amber Skies
- Voyage of the Argo
- Monster
- ???
- The Memories of a Past Life
- ???
- Mēnis
Also, you might not have noticed, but I’ve uploaded a new video-song to YouTube. It’s the old time classic British Grenadiers, a traditional marching song. It’s mindless and fun, so please don’t take it seriously. I sure as hell am not.
Yeah, I’ve decided to abandon most of the album I’ve been working on. As a result, Miss Loveless and the original mix of Monster are available as free downloads. I will continue to use Monster in the album, which is still being called Mental Breakdown, but Miss Loveless musically doesn’t fit with the current theme I’ve decided to go with. The album is going to have a much more melancholy and experimental feel to it (do not think Frank Zappa. More of on the lines of Paul McCartney meets Beirut.
Also, I’ve nearly completed the recording of the first track on the album (Monster has been moved to the third slot.) The song is entitled Amber Skies, and should be an indicator of the feel of this. I’m not recording a video of the entire audio-recording process, but I’ll post something soon.
That’s right, folks. I’ve decided to offer Monster and Miss Loveless, the two available songs I’ve released, for free download on my Band Camp page. You can either choose how much you want to pay me and get an extremely high quality version of either song, or you can download the normal quality mp3 files. So, huzzar!
Outside of that, I’m also offering a rarities album of sorts, entitled Land Shark, for free download. I’m not nessessarily proud of all of these songs, but I feel bad that I’ve recorded so much stuff in the past and haven’t released any of it, so I decided to put some of it off. Once again, every song here is free. I don’t know how long I’ll have it up for download, so I’d get it while you can. It has 14 songs, so it’s worth checking out.
It has recently come to my attention that I have been wasting my money on operating an EJunkie store. An old aquantiance of mine recommended that I switch to Band Camp, so I have done so. If you click on the music link above, you will still find a page, but it will ask you to again link a link. This second link will take you to my new store. There, you will find my two available songs, Monster and Miss Loveless, in multiple formats and in various quality settings. That’s right: you now can listen to me in all of my lossless greatness. You can even name your price for each download (although I’m setting $1 as the minimum for each…)
Right, that’s all.
Tootles!
Okay, so my roommate’s television arrived. So, instead of taking my MacBook to the Apple store in Seattle, I’ve just been using his television as a monitor (which is what I used mine as at home.) I guess I could easily record this way, but I’m a little preoccupied with homework and reading all the time to record at the moment.
I’ve started working. I am vastly underqualified for my job, but hell, I’m not complaining. I’ve also been reading a lot. And not working on songs. Yes, I appologize for the last part of that, but it’s the truth. As much as I’d love to have any motivation to work on writing songs, or at least complete recording the ones I have written already, I just do not have the motivation to do so at the moment. Maybe next week?
In other news, I’m already setting up the sequel to the BreakFest music festival that I held about a month ago. This concert shall be entitled SausageFest, and will probably feature the exact same acts as BreakFest, but at a different location, and with meatier foods.
Also, I’ve received my Beatles remasters. They’re quite good, I must say. The audio quality is all I could have asked for. The production, specifically the panning, is not. It’s the 21st Century. We have enough of a knowledge of panning to re-align tracks so that they make sense. Because of the terrible panning of quite a few of the albums, I’m tempted to get my hands on a copy of the Mono box set. Unfortunately, I don’t have the money to do so yet.
Speaking of money, I have made a grand total of $0 by selling my songs on the site. Glad to see I’m so popular. I’m honestly not complaining. I’m lazy enough to justify my lack of a fanbase. I suppose I really should finish a song or two…
