I am pleased to announce the arrival of my newest album, Happiness is Subjective, featuring twelve new songs! You can hear it by visiting the Music section of the website or by clicking here. Some of the songs you might find familiar:
1. Again – This is a fleshed-out version of a song that I released as a demo for February Album Writing Month 2010.
2. Get Up – This is a fleshed-out version of a song that I released as a demo for February Album Writing Month 2011.
3. Hardly a Moment – My first Songfight win! Featuring Manhattan Glutton.
4. My Uncle Romeo – A re-recorded version of a song that I released as a demo for February Album Writing Month 2011.
5. Half a Million Nerds – My acclaimed cover of Jan Krüger’s Songfight-winning tune.
6. Crush – A re-recorded version of my Songfight submission from 2010.
7. Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop – A re-recorded version of the song I submitted as a demo for February Album Writing Month 2009.
8. Corporate Conscience – A brand-new song!
9. When Did You Know – My Songfight entry from 2010, featuring Signboy and Christopher Cogott.
10. Happy – A brand-new song!
11. Grown Up Geek – A rerecorded version of my song from February Album Writing Month 2011.
12. Let it Roll – A brand-new song!
The album is free to listen to, and a print copy will be available for you to purchase for a nominal fee soon – I’ll keep you posted. Enjoy!
This will be way too much content for me to reasonably expect you to go through, so I’ll try to point out the highlights as we go.
Firstly, I participated in (and won!) this year’s February Album Writing Month. You can see my FAWM page here, but I should share a word on the structure, as I’m debating how to integrate this new content into the music section of this site.
See, first I recorded a couple of guitar demos. Then I buckled down and did an Album-A-Day called Eight 88s. Then I finished the FAWM album with more guitar demos. The full album is to be called Never the Twain, but it will contain the entirety of Eight 88s, as well as three tracks that will be on my upcoming “real” album at the end of this month. I’m not sure how to deal with the content overlap.
Anyway, here’s the songs. I’ve put asterisks next to the ones I think are particularly worth checking out.
1. Unbearable
*2. Get Up
3. Saint Sebastian
4. Song for Randall Munroe (Trochee Fixation)
5. The Butler and the Bastard
*6. My Uncle Romeo
7. 88
*8. Interest
*9. Follow You There
10. Enough
*11. Grown Up Geek (for Allyson)
12. Genetic Lottery
14. Yes Yes Yes
15. Following a Dream
There is no track 13. Just trust me.
After that, I cooled my heels for a bit when the songs I’d just recorded, mixing and plotting. But then Nur Ein started. Nur Ein is a long-form elimination challenged hosted as part of the Songfight network once a year. It has required one song per week over the last month, and will continue into the second week of June.
Round 0 (qualifying round), the title was “First Blood,” and the mandatory challenge was that the song had to be educational. I turned in a genre-hopping song about the blood sacrifice required by Mayan rulers. It’s available here. It came in 6th out of 20.
Round 1, the title was “Colourblind,” and the mandatory challenge was that it could not have a chorus. I turned in a solo piano piece, which you can hear at this link. I came in 9th place out of 19.
Round 2, the title was “Blame It On Ginger,” and the mandatory challenge was that the song be autobiographical. I tapped into my rap alter-ego Hunky and turned in this little nerdcore ditty, which placed 6th out of 15. Of my entries so far this year, this is the one I think is not to be missed – unless you have a natural revulsion to rap music (as does one of the judges, much to my chagrin).
Round 3, the title was “Unholy Alliance,” and the mandatory challenge was that the song be a duet with a guest, so I called a friend who wishes to remain anonymous (for the purposes of the contest, “Mister Skull Maven”), and turned out this instrumental piano/electric guitar duet. The round is ongoing, so the results are not yet known.
I think that about covers what you’ve missed since my last update. I’ll try to be more punctual in the future, as this update took almost 45 minutes to compile.
If you’ve been checking the site regularly (don’t know why you would, but if you have), it probably looks like I haven’t done anything in several months. This isn’t, strictly speaking, true, though it’s been quite some time since I finished any music. Thanks to the good folks at Febraury Album Writing Month, I’ve chased down some inspiration and rushed my way through 11 new demos in the last week. That’s 11 brand-new songs, songs that didn’t exist before the 1st of this month.
Eight of the eleven were recorded in a single day – I’ve submitted them under the title Eight 88s for the Crapart Album-A-Day project. The site hasn’t updated in a few years, so don’t hold your breath for an update, but I’ll be posting it as a standalone album on the Music tab as soon as I’ve got cover art for it.
I’ve been remiss in keeping this site updated, but you can follow my progress at My FAWM page until I get around to updating the site proper.
See you at the end, with 14 new songs!
A couple of new things to share today.
First up, I’ve finally polished my track “Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop” to the point of completion. You may remember that rough demo that I cobbled together during February Album Writing Month 2009… Now it’s done. It’s been submitted to a compilation, but I’m happy to share the finished version with you for the time being. Click here to listen!
Also, over at Songfight, we did a “No Twists, Original Flava Coverfight,” which basically means that all the participants agreed to do covers of each others’ songs. King Arthur did a fine rendition of my old tune “Brother In Law,” which was pretty much the last thing I would have expected.
More importantly, however, is the one that I just finished and turned in: a cover of Jan Krueger’s track “Half A Million Nerds.” Back in 2008, the original version of this song was one of the winners in Songfight’s first (and so far only) three-way tie for first. Now I’ve expanded it from an a capella track into a rock song. You’re welcome.
There may be more to come today, so stay tuned!
I’ve collected the six songs from my run in Nur Ein V, put them in reverse order, burned them to a CD, and stuck a degu on the front cover, and called it But for Their Configuration. Some of the songs have been updated, and they’ve all been remixed slightly, so go listen and download the EP!
There will be a physical copy available soon for a nominal fee. Nothing quite so fancy as last time, though I’ll be providing a more professional printing when it comes time for my next full-length album.
Oh, I wish you could have seen it! Which really just means I wish I had posted here in a timely manner. The song advertised in the previous news update, my “Hardly a Moment” collaboration with Manhattan Glutton, actually came in first in that week’s Songfight! Go figure; my first Songfight win. More on that in the Blog, sometime soon.
The following week, “The Middle Part,” also featured a song from me, which I neglected to advertise here, but no matter. It got five votes, which isn’t bad for a song that was never really meant to stand alone.
Of course, the big news is that I’ve got yet one more new song up for you on Songfight right now. It’s called “When Did You Know,” and I entered it as Jon Eric & Friends. The friends in this case are Christopher Cogott on the electric guitar and Signboy on the drums! It’s up for your consideration right now on Songfight, so I’d highly recommend heading on over there, listening to the songs, and casting votes for the ones you like (especially mine).
Stay tuned, because who knows? I might have another big update tomorrow!
The deadline for the current fight is in approximately one hour, and my entry – with some significant help from Songfight’s Manhattan Glutton – will be in it! The title is “Hardly a Moment,” and you can hear our effort by clicking here.
Presumably sometime by the end of the day, you’ll also be able to see it (and vote for it, if you feel so inclined) at http://www.songfight.org/. Make sure you vote for mine – and vote for some of the other entries if you like them!
Until next time,
Jon
Let’s brush away the spider webs and rededicate this place!
You may or may not know this, but Blogger, the Google-owned service that used to host my News and Blog pages, decided a couple of months ago that it would stop supporting any feed that self-hosted, rather than entrusting its entire archives to Blogger.com. Meaning that, starting May 1st, I was no longer able to update my news or Blog. A lot of stuff happened in the meantime, which many people had no means of reading about, because I wasn’t even able to update the site to tell you what had happened.
Such a pity. I used to be a huge supporter of Blogger.
Anyway, the world’s best webmaster took the entire theme of my site, basically rebuilt it from the ground up to match Wordpress’ specifications, backed up both feeds, and converted the entire website to Wordpress feeds. That’s no mean feat, so if you happen to see Spud, be sure to give him a big hug for me.
In the meantime, let’s talk about the songs that have come out since the last time I did a news posting, which you can find on my Recent Music page.
First up, we’ve got the last of the demos from my failed February Album Writing Month project. Yes, I dropped out, but we got one last good demo from it, the Phil Wages-penned “Snow (A Good Way to Spend some Time).” Wages wrote the lyrics from some prompts, and I liked them enough to gank them and record the demo. Phil likes it, how about you?
I also ran a little Songfight Side Project called Circle of Titles. The idea was that each participant would record a song that another participant had suggested. I recorded a track called “Viva La Narcissism,” which was a title suggested by Heuristics, Inc.
And finally, during the downtime, I participated in the fifth annual NUR EIN sidefight, in which 21 Songfighters entered, and were whittled down week by week until only one remained. I made it one round farther than last year, and came out with some material I’m quite proud of.
Round 0 – “Time to Panic” – Non-optional challenge: include audible counting – I placed 1st out of 21.
Round 1 – “Stranded” – Non-optional challenge: include whispering – I placed 5th of 21.
Round 2 – “Spanish Lessons” – Non-optional challenge: use accelerando – I placed 9th out of 14.
Round 3 – “97” (feat. King Arthur) – Non-optional challenge: Bring a guest; the more interesting the better – I placed 4th of 12.
Round 4 – “Not in This Lifetime” – Non-optional challenge: include the provided sample – I placed 7th of 9.
Round 5 – “We Need to Talk” – Non-optional challenge: acrostic lyrics – I placed 7th out of 8 and was eliminated.
All in all, it’s been fairly productive. I’ll be coming out with some new material in a couple of weeks, followed by an EP composed of remasters of my Nur Ein V songs. Keep your eyes open, and I’ll see you when you see me!
Over and out,
-Jon
I’ve got two new February Album Writing Month demos for you to chew on. One of them will be fleshed out into a full song some time this week. Leave a comment in the blog if you have a preference for which one.
Hear them both here:
I’ve got a new demo for February Album Writing Month up. It’s called “Bohemian Love.” Listen here, and stay tuned for more!
Also, check out my FAWM page for slightly more timely updates!