The Well of the Saints

Well I've made good to my public (and by other public) --- all two blog readers, by finishing up another song. Yeah it's late, but I'm on leave tomorrow (so that I can be here to take delivery of Small Person's new bunkbeds) so hopefully it's not to bad. Oh yeah, I've somehow got to read seven papers too (while on leave, yep) but hopefully that won't be too grim.

Anyway, yes, another new - or rather old - song dating from years and years ago: at least before 2000, perhaps before 1995? About 3:30 long, which would be perfect for a pop song, except that it's not really a pop song - another mournful piece about, well, the usual mix of faithlessness, ennui, and desperation.

I think The Well of the Saints is a beautiful title for a song. Uncle Google and Mad Aunt Wikipedia tell me that it's the title of a early 20th century Irish play: but this song has nothing whatsoever to do with the play except the title, as far as I'm aware. Although reading the synopsis, well both seem more or less depressing, or at least melancholy.

So, that makes something like 8 songs now, of which at least 6 are in the slow, guitar driven style, relatively consistent, with a couple of outliers (children with rather more bass than is good for it, and the colonel, which turned into a rattling dunedin thing, somehow).

Enough for an EP (gulp!)

No Music This Week Either

So, another week without music. I was completely exhausted on Tuesday, so watched videos instead. Also I couldn't find the words for the song I was hoping to record - I'm mostly trawling through a back-catalogue of songs I've written 10 years ago (with Section 59: Beat your Children and It's not Hard being exceptions that prove the rule).

But while Annie was here, we did go to Slob Out (OK: Small Person actually read the name of the shop on the sign from across the street and said "it's really called Slow Boat Records"). So we spent some time browsing, including the new Chris Knox & the Nothing CD, and Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (yep: Nick Bollinger on The Sampler chooses my CDs for me)

And then, dropping Annie off at the airport, I ended up at the DVD shop there, and came away with Liam Finn's I'll be Lightning, Trillion's Audio Agriculture, and LCD Soundsystem's The Sound of Silver.

And so this evening, after at least going through my office to find the words & chords to a couple of things, went for dinner with another friend, had work admin to do, and then too far gone to spend hours recording.

St Mary's Curve

No music this week - we have our friend Annie over from Sydney, so we've mostly hung around with her, and drank...

But I have a couple of good new names:

difficult listening (except that it's used in lots of places) and

St Mary's Curve which seems like a great name for an album by someone, anyway...

Head Above Water

So, 12.30 AM, that equals the previous record.

Todays effort is quite short at 2.50, not really poppy, rather odd (and again old) little song, Head Above Water Not sure about it really, the vocals are quite weak & flutter in places - on the other hand, I quite like how the guitar sounds.

What's this one about - rather cliched I'm afraid:

keep my head above water
turn my face from the sun
keep my head above the water
now I'm all undone

I'm not sure I remember that far back - but it probably relates to the long and generally depressing time when I was finishing up a PhD. It's nowhere near as - well - Biblical as many of the rest, especially as I think I accidently replaced "flood" with "sun" in one of the verses. Oh well. But then perhaps it's better this way:

I used to laugh about rainbows
I used to smile at the sun
I used to laugh about rainbows
Now I'm all washed up

Hell

Yet another song done: current working title: hell --- although perhaps "Rock'N'Roll" would be better. Nasty digital clipping on the vocals, but well, I quite like it so I'm keeping it.

This is another old song which I've finally got around to recording. That's a good thing

Rock'n'Roll is the devil's music
And it comes straight up from Hell
And if you listen to the sinful rhythms
You'll go straight down there as well

Good news: it's only 12:30. That's a record.