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.