Sing Along - Momma

Mommas are wonderful, wonder-inducing, magic.  Most of the time when I am being a good dad, I am told I am being a great dad.  Mommas move through the world mothering and not being told this on a regular basis.  It’s like we’re watching a magician performing card tricks, but the magic is real—so we give mediocre applause because there’s no ‘trick’ being performed.

Like a lot of my tunes, this song is light on words. (Lindsey asked “Is that it?” the first time I played it for her).  In a lot of ways I haven’t grown past the age of being 14 years old and thinking that Nirvana was the most genius songwriting I had ever heard.  I’d like to think I’m painting broad strokes with few words in this song.  The second verse I think is the most vague:

Fingerprints are on the window, rain is gathering at the door.

I have an image in my mind about living in the house on Thorain and Robert’s little greasy hands marking up the windows and the glass back door.  When it rained sometimes rain would collect right at the threshold.  It’s amazing the while house didn’t smell like mold.

She takes the towel that the dog used, lying crumpled on the floor.

I have a distinct memory of Lindsey drying the wet dog off from being outside with the same towel we were using to dry the floor next to the back door.

Trash is strewn across the bedroom, doors are hanging by a pull

I remember Robert crawling around and turning over trash cans—or maybe that was the dog.  I can’t remember.  The old house we lived in had these ancient doors that felt like that were going to fall off at any given moment.  I think that was the worst part of having a baby in that kind of house.  So much danger—so much to baby proof.

I noticed a little while ago I like to use a little triplet thing in songwriting.  It’s just like “A Werewolf’s Been There” has this grandiose little triplet thing for the chorus and makes “Momma” reminiscent of that tune or that same emotional little bit of songwriting.  There are many songs written for mothers and in some ways I think I’ve copped from them—maybe as the song is trying to capture the “magic” of being a momma.  I certainly wanted to have a magical guitar solo to elevate the song at that particular moment.

I like the recording I eventually got, but this is challenging tune to pull off live.  It is (I think) the only song I have written in “F.”  Why I chose that I can’t remember.  It was probably for the big C voicing at the end of the verse.

Sing Along - Even Breathing

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court has put me in the mind of how vulnerable pregnant women are.  It’s not something I’ll ever fully be able to appreciate, but having been a witness to the process from start to finish, I have observed a few things about breathing and sleep that couldn’t escape the melody in my mind for this song.

Did you know if you are a person who is pregnant, and you sleep the wrong way in bed, you can wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air?

I didn’t know this either until I watched it happen.  It will make you scared enough to go the emergency room the next morning to make sure everything is “ok” (indeed, a doctor will recommend you come in immediately if you have breathing problems).  There were tears in the examination room as I sat quietly listening to the nurse (also pregnant and extraordinarily kind and reassuring) explain to both Lindsey and I that this was a thing.

There is some nerve in the back and can get “pinched” if the weight of your pregnant body lies squarely and relaxed on it when you sleep.  Although I am a person lucky enough not to ever have to give birth, I still can see how the weight of a growing body can put pressure on your respiratory system when lying on your back.

There are unattractive and weird body pillows you can buy (we bought one) that helps pregnant ladies sleep comfortably and not be in danger of random night-time suffocation.  I’m still in shock we were able to sell it later on.  I’ve learned that there is no bed-making technique good enough to overcome the strange, ineffable feeling you get when you see a body pillow on a freshly made bed.

We discuss quality of sleep often in our house.  While Lindsey is a self-proclaimed light-sleeper and had difficulty early on in our relationship sleeping next to me, I learned this was completely understandable as I made a recording to actually hear what kind of sound I was making.  After listening to the recording and observing the visible waves in the sound recording the next morning there was no doubt that I had a snoring issue.  Lindsey went half on a sleeping machine for me as she simply could not sleep through my loud (but rhythmic) snoring.  She would get out of bed when I had started to (loudly) drift asleep.  I was blissfully unaware of the scale and aggressiveness of the noise my body was making while I was unconscious.

When the baby came, breathing became an activity I never knew I would think about so much.  The moment he arrived I expected screaming (if you can scream you can breathe)—but there was no screaming or crying for what seemed like an eternity (it was probably only like 30 seconds).  When he started screaming it was like he had officially been “born.”  I wept in the delivery room and simultaneously told him that he did a great job and how good he looked.  This is sort of an unfair thing for a mom—as her work isn’t done when the baby arrives (look it up).  When the baby slept quietly at night (rarely) I almost couldn’t take the stress of wondering if he was breathing and whether he would keep breathing.  But he did!  And he still is.  But let me go check just in case.

Sing Along - The Woods Boots

This was the first song I wrote after I released Rescue.  It’s always a weird thought about what that next song will sound like especially after it has been many years making a record.

“The Woods Boots” is about Lindsey taking a pregnancy test at the Woods Boots in Colorado City, TX the weekend we were in Robert Lee, Texas for Tyler Wallace’s wedding.  I was given the honor of playing the pre-wedding music out in a canyon on the Wallace ranch where Tyler and Allison got married.  I decided my “look” wouldn’t be complete without a cowboy hat—an accessory I somehow evaded for my 36 years as a Texan.  I figured rightly so that there would be some sort of badass western wear or cowboy hat store somewhere close by.  I looked it up and Woods Boots had some notoriety in the area.

We decided to go eat lunch first at a place called Lucy’s.  It was a typical sort of west Texas cafe/restaurant sort of place.  I had a chicken fried steak which was OK.  I forget what Lindsey had.  She thought the food was great.  This was suspiciously out of character for her as she generally does not like any food we get when we eat out.  I didn’t think much of it because Lucy’s did have a sort of west Texas charm.  The empty streets of Colorado City made the cafe feel like the town center even though this was probably just the rhythm of a normal day in Colorado City.

After a sufficient amount of chicken fried steak, a sort of mediocre side salad, and a disappointing Pepsi, we headed to Woods Boots.

Like most western wear and boot stores, Woods Boots is a large building sitting atop a large parking lot in need of repair after many hot, dry summers.  We walked in and felt like the outsiders we were.  I asked to try on a few cowboy hats I thought I liked, but shockingly, there were very few hats which would fit my (apparently) large head.  I guess I learned two things that day.

I found a hat— not really the material or color I wanted—but it was a hat that fit and I sort of liked that it was a stye I would not have picked for myself.  Apparently the rule is that you should wear straw in summer and wool in winter.  This wedding was in spring but in Texas everything feels like summer.  It was a Stetson and came in a fancy Stetson hat box which I still have.  It blew off my head one time while we were on the Wallace family property which was embarrassing, but I looked like a real folk/roots musician in the few photos that were taken of me so I call it a win.

And my cowboy hat did look good.  It’s a dark green color and looks like a hat someone would wear to a wedding.

I found myself to be somewhat distracted at the reception after the ceremony.  Had I not been so enveloped in pondering what my life would look like once I had a plane on the runway I might have really partied at Tyler’s wedding.  I kept thinking about the thing that was going on with my partner and our little (growing) organization.  So after I played and did my service to Tyler and Alison I stayed the requisite time and left—which is a sad thing to do at Tyler Wallace’s wedding.  I was too distracted by the thought of being a dad to really be able to enjoy the reception.  I did make Lindsey be the designated driver on the weirdly long journey back to the hotel in Colorado City.  I kept saying “I’m going to be a good dad” both for Lindsey’s benefit and my own.

Download or stream “The Woods Boots Woods” from Bandcamp.

Sing Along: The Laboratory

I spent my first couple of years here in San Antonio in a studio apartment near Castle Hills (though from the sound of the passenger jets screaming overhead, it might as well have been on the runway of the San Antonio International Airport).  It was “cozy.”  I had just moved here and I was still getting on my feet with a new job and finding my way around the city.  My guitars, amps, my electric piano, stereo, records, and my recording equipment crowded out the small space and that is where they remained.  Occasionally I found an open mic to play, but I found my endurance with staying out until 2AM to be lacking.  I met really kind singer-songwriters trying to figure out their path as well and some of them even helped me out with playing my first shows here in the city.  My best friend Clint Buck found a job here eventually and we started playing music again together as Buck Webb (Buck Webb, Greatest Band in Town, Bum, bum).

But most nights I would sit in the apartment playing guitar or recording music by myself.  I had a group of songs I was doing countless demo takes—an exercise I now view as a waste of time.  It seems like month after month would pass and I wasn’t getting any closer to making the recording I set out to make even before I moved here.  Finding a rehearsal space was a problem.  Finding a drummer to play on the record was a problem.  Working in a small apartment with the planes screaming overhead was a problem.

And it began to wear on me.

I ate poorly, I drank too much, and I didn’t get enough sleep.  Some of it was fun though—and there are those late nights playing and recording fueled by a focus and solipsism that only the loneliness and quiet of 3AM in a studio apartment in San Antonio can provide.  But the rewards for this activity are few and not significant in the long term.

One day my favorite podcast featured celebrity-enabler Dr. Drew Pinsky on relationships:

“Go have a relationship.  Have a good one, have a bad one, have a weird or temporary one—just go have one.  You don’t change or grow as person on your own very much.  Relationships change us, and that is good.”

And so I got a haircut, trimmed my beard, put on some clean clothes, ventured out of the apartment, and had a relationship with a woman—and she inspired me—not in the sense that I was writing narrative songs about my love for her, but rather she became my inspiration for wanting to be a better friend, boyfriend, son, brother, bandmate, musician, and person.  The Laboratory is a song about the planning and isolation of pining for someone or the aching of wanting a dream.  It is also the song on the record which features the title:

Science can’t explain the beating of my heart
when I see your face.
It can’t duplicate the rush of motion in my gait
when I see you again.
‘Cause I got this disease, it makes me weak in my knees—
Won’t you come rescue me.

Listen to “The Laboratory” here:

Sing Along: I Get So Scared

"I Get So Scared" is special for a couple of reasons.  It is the oldest song on the new record and was the one song I felt needed to be brought back and re-recorded and dusted off a little bit.  I wrote it while living in Austin and playing with my friend Nick Welp.  We called ourselves The Tease and the Terror.

Like a lot of young musicians we were broke and couldn't afford a legitimate practice space long term, so we got an outdoor storage unit to use as a rehearsal space.  Then we got kicked out of that storage unit because we were right next to an extended stay hotel and the guests nor the management appreciated the melodious sounds emanating off the concrete and steel.  Then we moved to a different storage unit where the management was much more chill and we set up shop.  This was one of my first adventures in home recording (or storage unit recording--same thing).  You can see the old iMac in the corner of the photo.  This picture is of the only "gig" we ever had.  In a storage shed.  For two people.

I've always liked "I Get So Scared" and the guitar sounds and harmonies were fun to develop on the new version.  Listen to I Get So Scared available on RESCUE now:

BASS Along: Over and Over Again

Today we are doing something special with our “Sing Along” series where we discuss how the songs from RESCUE came into being.  Today we BASS ALONG!  Clint Buck, greatest man in town and bass player for The Sleuth talks about the song “Over and Over Again.”

Lubbock, 2009

Hollis first played Over and Over again for me back in 2009, not long after we had started playing together while in law school out in Lubbock. That night, we were playing at a house party/open mic/jam session with several of our friends, which was exactly the sort of activity we all needed to blow off steam and have some fun. I brought my sousaphone out for a couple tunes!

The bass line came together pretty quickly. While Hollis played the verse chords—well, over and over again—I played around moving up and down the neck. Eventually, this line fell into place:

*Hollis's note--  I said to Clint: "Play something like the intro to "In the Meantime" by Spacehog."

For the chorus, I started (like I usually do when I’m learning one of Hollis’ songs) by tracking Hollis’ chords and playing the tonic generally in line with his strumming pattern. The second time through the pattern, I wanted the bass line to have more of a “wheels off” feel to intimate a grown sense of anxiety before falling back into the verse riff. After experimenting with a few different variations, this is what I settled on:

It was simple enough, but it sounded exactly how I wanted it to underneath Hollis’ guitar and singing. It’s a fun song to play, and I always think about the early days of performing with Hollis when I do.

Listen to "Over and Over Again" from RESCUE here:

Sing Along: All of the Nice Things

“All of the Nice Things” is the oldest song on RESCUE.  It was written in 2007 and is a companion song to “The Most Awful Things” from DANGER.  Why bring an old song back to a new record?

WHY NOT?

I try to listen to songs the way most people would listen to them (mainly focusing on the lyrics).  I believe this is one of the more “lyrically coherent” tunes I’ve written.  There are also some sweet moments in the song which lends itself a little more to the themes of redemption on RESCUE.

This tune deserves the whole lyric treatment for this post:

Beer and Queso and late-night TV
Scrabble and UNO and Monopoly
I just can't figure out what's wrong with me
It's hard to sleep at night
I'm a boxer without a fight
And the color of my shiner isn't as bright

All of the nice things aren't as nice without you

Scary movies
A comfy chair
Inappropriate clothing
An inappropriate stare

All of the nice things aren't nice without you

Penguins and puppies and small orphaned squirrels
swimming and porno and dancing with girls
I can't even get hungover anymore
Well it's hard to keep my eyes dry
I'm a cold war without a spy
and I'm a Loudon Wainwright “One Man Kind of Guy”

Listen to “All of the Nice Things” here:

Sing Along: Adeline or "Love is the Most Complicated Thing There Is"

"Adeline" was written after I moved to San Antonio in 2012 but was a song that went through a couple of iterations (none of which were performed live).  It’s hard to describe what the song is about because it doesn’t really mean anything other than being set of lyrics that were appropriate for the song.  It’s a “love” song in a loose sense because it is more of a “want” song.

I struggled with keeping these lyrics because they aren’t extraordinarily interesting but they do create a picture or feeling and I think they served the song.  “Adeline” is not based on anyone or even a story or narrative.  It’s a just a song that evolved over time--a boring, but quite common story in songwriting.

To hear what could have gone on the album, I give you “Adeline 1.0” or “Love is the Most Complicated Thing There Is.”

Hearing the song now, I have to say I’m fully aware that love is NOT the most complicated thing there is.  There many things which are way more complicated—like space, or insurance.

And to compare, this is what the song turned into:  “Adeline” on RESCUE available now!

Sing Along: Fake Pearls

“Fake Pearls” is a song about jewelry.  This is another one of those songs that started out as a chorus:

So open up your heart and sing with me
All you missing pieces and broken jewelry.
This world will never yield, it’s too damn tough.
But I cut and I shine like a diamond in the rough.

Pretend you are a string of cheap, fake pearls:  Where did you come from?  What are you made of?  What do you see?  What things do you experience?  Are you jealous of better, more expensive jewelry?

The arrangement and strings are courtesy of Andrew “The Mighty” McGregor.  Andy also created an alternative mix which I released along with a demo version on limited 7".  The 7''s are gone but you can still download it here!

Listen to Fake Pearls:

Sing Along: Come Back Home

We're starting side two, y'all!!!

I don’t remember specifically when “Come Back Home” came about but it was roughly around the time I was living in Arlington (2006-2008).  I heard a news story about a guy who had boarded a plane knowing he had the measles and was contagious.  At some point he was on house arrest and it gave me an idea for a song about the way desperate people will do desperate things to get where they want to go.

The only thing I regret about this song was throwing shade at Southwest Airlines.  I have never had a bad flight with them and they should be considered more than just a discount airline.  The only other thing I feel disingenuous in this song is the reference to the dirt bike.  I have never driven a dirt bike and only once have I rode as a passenger on a motorcycle—a lamentable thing indeed because I feel like I would have loved being a “dirt bike” kind of guy.

Listen to Come Back Home here:

Sing Along: Grayscale

I don’t know how to tell you this, but I suppose I will just say it:

“Grayscale” was inspired by an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.

There is an episode that particularly stuck out to me from my childhood entitled “Perchance to Dream.”  Bruce Wayne wakes up after blacking out during some sort of criminal bust and finds his life to be completely different.  His parents are still alive, Alfred is oblivious, and he is married to Selena Kyle.  It turns out he is in some sort of dream created by Mad Hatter.  One of the giveaways that he is living a dream is that fact that everything is in black and white because one cannot see color in dreams.  This is actually not true—it is well documented that people can “see” color in dreams, but for the purpose of this song I ran with it.

Grayscale is a song about color and the black and white digital representation called grayscale.  I had been playing around with a galloping rhythm and singing an anthemic melody and it turned into the chorus section.  The verse sections became lyrically about other senses besides sight--a rule I developed to help me finish the song when what originally inspired me to move was a chorus section.  Organs are kind of the star of this song.  I recorded the organ sounds on the record from a little Hammer beginner organ my grandparents bought when they gave their piano to my parents.  The thing weighs a thousand pounds and I’m glad it’s all over this record.  It now lives with good old Clint Buck and I’m proud to report he is using it to terrorize his neighbors.

The Organ Circa 2015-2016 during recording of RESCUE

Thank you for listening to “Grayscale.”

Sing Along: Getaway (Snitches Get Stitches)

“Getaway (Snitches Get Stitches)” is about loyalty, sacrifice, complacency, and also a bank robbery.  This is actually a song I wrote thinking I would play it with my friends Gunter Voelker of the band Jack Hotel and Tyler Wallace of Union Specific as a type of writing and recording over e-mail type of thing.  We never ended up making it happen, but I got a song that seemed fun and interesting enough for the record.

I wrote this song thinking about the movie Dog Day Afternoon.  The movie is based on a bizarre true story, but what stuck with me about the tale was this idea that the main character was doing this dangerous, crazy thing for another person (to pay for his boyfriend’s sex change).  So I wrote this song about a guy who goes down in a bank robbery and his accomplice/getaway driver gets away.  He’s not going to snitch because he’s confident that he’ll be able to escape and meet up with his partner.  I also verbed a word.  You are all welcome and encouraged to say that you “shawshanked” your way out of something.

I’d never tell, that just ain’t me;
I’d rather be in prison with integrity
I’ll figure out a bold escape;
I’ll shawshank out and jump the gate.

Listen to the entirety of Getaway (Snitches Get Stitches) from the new album RESCUE here and please follow the links and consider picking up a copy of the record.  The official album release is Aug. 25th at Ventura, 1011 Ave B, San Antonio, TX.

Sing Along: Bear-filled Woods

Bear-filled Woods is a song based on the joke:

Q: How fast do you have to be to outrun a bear in the woods?
A: Just faster than you.

This song is about a terrible person luring another terrible person out into the woods to attract bears and see who can survive.  If I’m not mistaken, I think that may have been the plot of the last Alien movie as well.

I Insisted we go camping.
And that you wear your best perfume
And leave out all the picnic food
And I would wear my running shoes.

Cause when you start complaining
and acting kind of rude
I think I’ll take my chances
and run into those bear-filled woods.

This is another song written in Lubbock.  There’s a great and inspiring “turn” I feel from the audience once they get what the song is doing lyrically but when I perform it solo/acoustic I sound like a little mosquito on stage.  This song deserves to get wild and heavy.

The tone of this song is darker than the joke and I don’t know how to be “dark” other than using a fake Heart Shaped Box style riff for the chorus.

The organ gets fun and banshee-like in the chorus to add to a feeling of chaos/surprise:

This song is a builder so many may not hear the acoustic guitars in the very last run through of the chorus that are giving a little bit of beef to the song to make it exciting:

And then we end with a classic “cha-cha-cha” at the end.  There’s few things more difficult than figuring out how to end a song, so if you can borrow another method from others, I say do it.  Screw the end of the song—it’s the end!

Hear Bear-filled Woods from the new album RESCUE in it’s entirety here:

Sing Along: The Balcony Song

I wrote the first lines of this song right after I graduated from college.  I didn’t quite know what to do with it:

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel it’s a
freight train drinking whiskey from a funnel

It sounded pretty unoriginal, but at the time “pretty unoriginal” was still original to me so I kept it stashed away in my special little notebook full of ideas and didn’t think about it for many years afterward.  This type of song isn’t really my style and drinking lots of whiskey is a stupid subject—especially a metaphorical freight train doing it.  It doesn’t even really make a lot of sense.

I resurrected this segment of a song for the 2011 Blue Light Live Singer/Songwriter Competition.  The Blue Light Live is a special place to me and countless other musicians and lovers of live music in Lubbock.  The Singer/Songwriter competition drew so many players not just from Lubbock, but from all over west Texas.  The song has been a favorite of mine to play ever since then and is inspired by Lubbock, West Texas, and all of the amazing musicians playing music out there.

When it came down to record it for Rescue, I liked it as more of a light rock tune.  I borrowed a 12-string guitar from the music store down the road to add a little color to the arpeggiated riff:

I call it the Balcony Song because I wanted a record of singing and playing it on the day I had fully written the tune and lyrics.  I recorded it on the balcony of an apartment I hated, hence the title of the video.  The name of the song “The Balcony Song” somehow to me sounds better than “Freight Train” or “I Can See the Light.”  Yuck.  It sounds like a declaration screamed from a balcony--perhaps as if someone is screaming at a balcony from below while having their belongings thrown out a multi-story window--something like that

Please enjoy “The Balcony Song” in it’s entirety on my new album, RESCUE.

Also, if you would like to watch the original video from the day I finished the song for the Blue Light Live Sing/Songwriter Competition, here it is!

Sing Along: Lucy, Tell Me a Secret

On December 31st, 2013, I was invited to a New Year's Eve party by a friend from college here in San Antonio.  When I walked in, I was confronted with a small, black dachshund who looked to be approximately 800 years old.  At the party I met the most wonderful woman I'd ever encountered--a teacher and artist who loved the beach, ocean, and her small, old, black wiener dog named Lucy.  When I arrived at my apartment on New Year’s Day at approximately 4AM, I took out my guitar and wrote this song about this dog and her owner who would later become my wife.

Lucy, Tell Me a Secret is supposed to sound like my best interpretation of The Cars, but instead it sounds like this:
 

You walk around
with your tail between your stubby legs.
I pick you up and put you down
You’re not the type that begs
Lucy, tell me bout the girl
whose name is on your collar
would she make me want to holler and growl?
Tell me, is she dating anybody?
Is she an independent lady?
Does she know that you’re out on the town?

Lucy tell me a secret
Tell me all of the things that I really want to know
I’ve been waiting for so long
This feeling in me is so strong
I think I’ll just go on and ask about your girl.

I look around
For a gal that looks like she’s afraid
Calling out your name and running in a panicked state
Hey Lucy, why don't you introduce me
to the girl who’s on your collar?
Cause I really want to call her and say:
“Your friend is resting nice and safely
And she’d like it if you’d date me,
we work together so well."

Sing Along: A Werewolf's Been There

"A Werewolf's Been There" was one of the first new songs written for RESCUE.  As an album opener, it is supposed to have a nefarious-sounding opening (being the spiritual lead in from the previous album INVITES ) and then transition to a glorious, rocking, anthemic opening for an album about redemption, love, and friendship.  It is a song sonically inspired in equal parts by Billy Joel, Vampire Weekend, and Queen.

The nefarious-sounding opening:

I don’t normally place a lot of serious weight or depth into the lyrics for the songs.  If I say or think something interesting (not common) I use it as a jumping-off point and kind of “fill in” the rest.  This is a weakness in my songwriting, but this method has kept me (for the most part) out of inspirational ruts.  Like a lot of songs, many shitty first drafts preceded what ended up on the record (and I’m not entirely sure the words to these songs won’t change further).

The title comes from the opening lines:

My bathroom looks like a werewolf's been there.
I think I'm starting to shed.

The imagery here is about looking at the bathroom sink and seeing both the "shed" hair from male pattern baldness and the hair from shaving my beard.  This is a thematic nod to the act of growing older, more weary, and slowly trying to conform to the appearance and spirit of a world that is sometimes hostile towards our wild natures.  The vocal harmonies interrupting each of the verses are intended to sound like wolves howling (nearly perfect-sounding harmonious wolves that is).  The big damn chorus in this song features some electric guitars playing a harmony line to give the BDC a little bit more emotional impact.  If you listen, you can hear what they add to the tune.

You can listen to “A Werewolf’s Been There” in it’s entirety from my new album available at https://holliswebb.bandcamp.com/.

Sing Along: Crossword

 "Crossword" was written some time in either 2008 or 2009.  This song is heavily influenced by MGMT's sound on "Time to Pretend."  The song originally featured an electric guitar playing what is now the distorted bass riff.  It sounded way too thin with guitar and the beat didn't have any "punch" or direction.

I decided to mess around with taking out the electric guitar, distorting the bass, adding a slight touch of stereo delay to the drum beat, and a wicked keyboard theme/solo and then caking on layers of vocals to try and achieve a fun, indie type of sound with a drum track.

The distorted bass did wonders and is something I recommend when dealing with a riff or melody that sounds thin on electric guitar.

The vocals are a little different than any other song as well.  On Danger as a whole I stepped back and tried to think about the limits of what I was doing and make it sound as good and exciting as possible within those limits.  Singing loud, singing soft, singing high and low, singing with a funny voice and then completely sober--I wanted to get a little bit of everything.  This was a tune I decided to "sing whisper" and then layer tracks to get a big, unique vocals sound.  The lyrics are a little saccharine, but the melody and instrumental themes are pretty fun (I hope) for the listener.  I had a dream of doing a video for the tune of a single take in the neighborhood and house I lived in when I was in school.  In a lot of ways this is a very representative DANGER INVITES RESCUE song.  It sounds like a song recorded joyfully by oneself in the quiet, dark comfort of an amateur home studio.

Sing Along: Brother Danger

"Brother Danger" was written in 2007 and evolved from a song about a fictional heart surgeon.  It roughly turned into a musical song poem with imagery taken from thoughts I had about my dad, my dad's dad, my friend's dad. my dad's uncle, and my maternal grandfather.  It's a song about men.  It features turns of phrase with religious and political ideas informing the characters in the narrative.  It is a serious song, but one should understand and hear the acoustic guitar rhythm part to sound like a consistent march forward and unwavering hope for redemption and meaning in a harsh world.

This is a "quiet-loud" song.  Thick keyboard noise is caked on to serve as a surreal instrumental  backdrop.  The keyboards whine as if something imminent is about to occur as the acoustic guitar repeats a terse, heavy, acoustic , choral riff.  The drums are fake drums from a keyboard mixed to sound like what drums from a Genesis or Peter Gabriel song would sound like.  The haunting chorus and reverb-laden vocals chant out a song about a traveller who is driving and runs out of gasoline in a small rural community.  A good samaritan on the road picks him up and gives him gas money.  The kind stranger turns out to be his father who is very shell-shocked and miserable from all the hardships he has faced in life.  He takes him home to meet his fun, adventurous uncle who celebrates getting to meet his nephew with playing bassoon and smoking cigars.

The traveller decides to settle down and buy a farm, but the every-day life of living in a small, rural community starts to weigh on him and his crops start going rotten.  He gets a job when he loses the farm but find that he can't work for anyone and the life he though he would have of adventure and wealth will not come true.

The traveler, having failed at farming and traditional work, turns to God and country, but nightmares haunt him still about the seeming meaninglessness of a life of struggle.  As he takes communion he hopes that Jesus will take notice of his life.

I joined the mob; I called it macaroni.
I started having some bad ol' dreams.
I went to church. I drank a thimble full of Jesus.
I hope he pours one out for me.

Brother Danger from the album "Danger" is available on Bandcamp.

Sing Along: The Label On Your Sleeve

Song: "The Label On Your Sleeve"
Album: DANGER
Tempo: 120bpm
Time: 4/4
Key: G

After I left Austin in 2006, I had a "regathering" type of moment where I hung out in my apartment in Arlington and listened to and (tried) writing and recording as much as I could.  I was working a job close by where I was making a little bit more money and after hitting up open mics in Dallas and traveling to see many of my favorite bands live, I had a good idea of where I wanted my "sound" to go and what I was capable of.

I had just heard Arcade Fire at ACL 2006 and remembered loving the kind of serious but high tension mood their droning, repetetive verse beat style.  Driving, disco "four-on-the-four" like you had a drummer stuck on the roof and told him to beat his kick and not to stop until the record is done.

This was fully fleshed out in my parents's garage on Christmas Eve of 2007.  The original title of the song was "Pennant" like the kind of university pennant you might see at a 1950's college football game.  I had the lead melody and the "theme" of the tune in my head for some time.  I could hear it like it was bells or trumpets playing-something "glorious" and heralding like a fight song at a football game.

“The Label On Your Sleeve” theme

The drums aren't real.  They are individual drum sounds from a Casio keyboard I played live into the recording to the click track.  I could never get the drums to sound quite right, but they are passable.  When I play this song live, I find myself wanting to go quite a bit faster and sing more like David Byrne.  I wanted joyous, but "high tension."

The lyrics are about getting close and physical--how sometimes the first touches are the strangest and weirdest--with another person.  It's kind of like that weird "touching" thing a teenage guy might do at the movies while he's got his arms crossed--it's that little "I want to hold your hand" motion.  I'd like to know the over-under on that weird "touching" thing those guys are doing.

This is the first of many songs I would write trying to imitate The Features.  Funny story:  I posted this on The Features Fans online community board and no one responded.  I suppose listening back it sounds a little rough, but still not bad for where I was in the process of learning to write songs and record them.

I feel the warmth inside your cashmere
I only wish I was the label on your sleeve
Maybe then I could be next to you
But instead I'll have to dream of ways to be
Close to you

So here it is in its full glory:

You can download "The Label On Your Sleeve" and other songs on Danger from Bandcamp.