So this is my new EP called Olivier. My fourth and last project named after one of my kids with songs reflecting love and loss.

When Corinne came out back in 2005, I thought I was done with both  fathering kids and naming my records after them. Along came a change of heart and along with it Olivier (the baby) in 2008.  So basically I was contractually obligated to my family to put this out so no one gets left out.

It’s probably the least accessible (definitely the least upbeat) of my solo projects so of course this is the one I’m putting on iTunes via Tunecore. Call me whatever….

I was also dissatisfied with Area 1234 as the only place to get my music, so I’ve put this EP on a Bandcamp page where you can stream it and download it free until 2011 starts in a couple of days. I’m still thinking about how to handle things after that.

I’m from GarageBand

When I got my MacBook Pro for Christmas last year, my recording capabilities took a quantum leap. I know that’s kind of a ridiculous statement, but my goal when I started recording again in 2001 was to simply do as much as possible for little or no out-of-pocket cost. So I spent the better part of eight years recording on Pro Tools Free on a hand-me-down Windows Me clunker of a machine (not even an external drive). I did get accessories here and there (I kept breaking headphones) but the engine room remained the same.

So imagine my delight at actually working on a DAW program that lets me do more than eight tracks and has a jillion presets that enable me to sound like I’m singing through a broken mic without actually having to break a mic. Positively luxurious.

Of course, I know that you can end up sounding like the rest of the world with this stuff if you’re not careful. That’s why I made sure to include groundbreaking juxtapositions in my arrangements such as as combining banjo and autotuned vocals on True Love and the aforementioned broken mic vocal effect against slow country fingerpicking on Rage.

Hope you like it. Let me know.

Sometimes you need the pain
Just like you need the rain
Sometimes it’s the only way to see
The only way to be

And you will know true love

It’s the one thing that’s always there
You can see it all everywhere
And it’s all up to how well you die
And every day to accept it you try

In the days that feel like the last
Seeing things about to pass
You will not forget ever
What you were left trying to remember

Sometimes you forget to wish things last
Then they’re shot into the past
That sorrow you heard about tasting sweet
Sometimes that’s all you’re ever going to have to eat

And the day has come to give God praise
For the things you found in your days
The day has come to walk the line
Realize you can call no thing mine

I’ll try to take my rage
Put some pity in its place
This is a long-term fight
Hard to tell just what is right
My stomach growls to be obeyed
And hairs stand up on my nape
The weight of days can bring me down
Trying to see past the corner before I go round

I’ll try to change my disgust
To an empathy that I can trust
Your molten words fell on my ears
So hard now to remember your tears
There are new tricks that must be learned
I can’t judge how much you deserve to burn
I search for my role and ask how do I live
With this blinding rage that does not forgive

I’ll try not to be mad
Remember all you did not have
That you could not be expected to give
Do you regret that we all live?
We’re a million miles apart
No one will be the first to decide to start
The tongues we speak are not the same
No one to come will bear your name

You can be my secret garden
And I your soldier boy
I chased you from my dreams
But I can’t play without your toys

When you wedged yourself
And I was in my pain
I was down in the desert
Listening to the distant rain

Ooh ooh tell me true
Ooh ooh sick eyes blue

Well I’m lying on the floor
With my foot next to my head
I’m doing fine baby
Except without you I feel dead

Ooh ooh tell me true
Ooh ooh sick eyes blue

Orem Ain’t Got No Head Cheese

Have you ever licked your finger
In the blue Kentucky rain
Powder in your nose
Rotten eggs in your brain?

I’m a lonely little blob
Scaring wolverines
Please don’t take a bath
While the spoon moon gleams

I kissed my love
And then I lost it
Looking out
At the valley deep
Powdered fingers
Blew out my eyes
But now I can’t
Get my sleep
And Orem never did get his head cheese

From green tragedy
My love and I reborn
They trimmed off the fat
On that dewy summer morn

Pure essence am I
All powerful I bloom
Beware all ye before me
I laugh at your broom

I kissed my love
And then I lost it
Looking out
At the valley deep
Powdered fingers
Blew out my eyes
But now I can’t
Get my sleep
And Orem never did get his head cheese

And if you want to know
Just go ask Bill and Joe

In 2005, I rocked. Download. Lyrics.

In 2006 I went acoustic. Download. Lyrics.

In 2007 I was still acoustic but I rocked a little with a little help from my friend. Download. Lyrics.

First finished product using GarageBand and I am not disappointed. Wrote the whole thing in the last couple of weeks. Soft vocal, acoustic guitar, bass played almost like a drum, rockabilly chugging guitar and some atmospheric GarageBand keyboards played on keypad. Straddles the line between folk and rockabilly with some drumless reggae backbeat at the bottom. Words are what’s left after the firecracker smell fades away on July 5th.

Download it at Area1234. Lyrics are here.

In the days of blood and courage
As history wrote her next page
The farmers spoke a kingdom over ale
They drew the borders and dug in
Against a king and parliaments whim
And old glory flew over it all

Lofty ideals forever fly
But the real world costs a real price
And there’s no telling how tall
The whiskey farmers soon found out
What the slaves knew all about
And old glory flew above it all

The truths that were self evident
The inalienable rights of all men
Didn’t stop the wars over what was a man
Coats of blue trails of tears
Internment camps ethnic fears
And old glory flew above all them

Someday under a summer sky
The emperor is crowned on the fourth of July
A man born to govern for all
He knows what’ s best for all our good
Speaks through Twitter and
Facebook
And old glory lines the palace halls

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

• Mr. Joyless
• That Was My Song
• The Child Is Crying
• Baby’s Eyes
• In The Presence Of My Love
• Not My Enemy

My 2004 expansion of the Astrid EP. Same four tracks as before plus two more. Still that electric guitar-driven pop rock with the touches of Caribbean and dance and jazz and grunge, even in the two new songs which start edging back towards punk. Digital booklet included. Download here. Background info here.