Here’s the music video for my song “Let’s Get Bloody”. This was conceived, shot and edited by Jeremy J Quinn (JeremyJQuinn.net) with additional camera by Michele Jaquis. Statues provided by guy selling statues in Hollywood. Thanks Jeremy for putting this together!!

Here are some photos that I took during the video shoot.

Here is my cover version of a track you may remember from the early 1990s from the band Dig. This one was in pretty heavy rotation on MTV’s old “buzz bin” back in the day. I recorded this in a “video song” format—what you see is what you hear, all video captured during the creation of the song (with the exception of the outdoor footage which was taken in my back yard).

I’ve got a new album coming out but I’m still working on new song ideas! I decided to put together a quick demo of what I was working on. In this video I’m running my Roland Juno-6 into a Strymon TimeLine.

Here is my cover of Slint “Good Morning, Captain” off of their 1991 album Spiderland. I hope you like it. I love this song, and I know my version will never be as good as the original, but I really wanted to cover it. (What you see is what you hear, no lip-synching or instrument-synching).

Here are the lyrics:

“Let me in,” the voice cried softly
From outside the wooden door
Scattered remnants of the ship could be seen in the distance
Blood stained the icy wall of the shore

“I’m the only one left. The storm took them all,”
He managed as he tried to stand
The tears ran down his face
“Please, it’s cold.”

When he woke, there was no trace of the ship
Only the dawn was left behind by the storm
He felt the creaking of the stairs beneath him
That rose, from the sea, to the door

There was a sound at the window then
The captain started, his breath was still
Slowly, he turned

From behind the edge of the windowsill
There appeared the delicate hand of a child
His face was flush and timid
He stared at the captain through frightened eyes

The captain reached for something to hold on to
“Help me,” he whispered, as he rose slowly to his feet
The boy’s face went pale
He recognized the sound

Silently, he pulled down the shade against the shadow
Lost in the doorstep of the empty house

“I’m trying to find my way home.
I’m sorry . . .
And I miss you

I miss you
I’ve grown taller now
I want the police to be notified
I’ll make it up to you
I swear, I’ll make it up to you

I miss you.”

Here’s a little live looping thing I threw together today. All sounds are recorded live (nothing pre-recorded). Using two Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro (EDP) loopers, Strymon TimeLine and Boss DF-2 for my voice, and Line 6 AM4 and Strymon El Capistan for the guitar. Hope you like it.

This past weekend I took a little break from working on the new album and headed out to California Speedway in Fontana (aka Fontucky), CA. It’s been almost a year since I’ve been on a racetrack and was hoping to just not to suck completely. On Sunday, with some drafting help from my friend John I managed to qualify 6th out of 16 cars. Not too bad considering I’m really not very good at this whole “race car driver” thing. I made a few dumb mistakes in the race and ended up finishing 10th, but overall it was ridiculously fun. I’m so glad that I’m able to do this from time to time!

I recorded this one this past Sunday. This is for anyone that has lost someone close to them.

You will join us
When you’re ready
But please don’t keep me
Waiting forever.

I can see you,
Sometimes when I’m dreaming.

Sometimes When I’m Dreaming – STEAL

No lip-syncing, no instrument-syncing. What you see is what you hear.

I recently got to borrow an old-school Univox drum machine. It’s strange and unique. Where else can you get volume sliders for Quijada, Guido AND Tambourine. Not only does it have patterns for Mambo, Rumba and Bossanova, but many others including Merinque, Beguine and Habanera. What more could you want?

I felt like making some droning noise so I ran the Univox through my Strymon El Capistan and blueSky reverb pedals. I recently started working with my friends over at Strymon and am really loving what they’ve come up with so far. I’m looking forward to working on some more kick-ass effects with them in the future.

I decided to turn this drum machine effects noise fest into a more involved piece, so I took the original unaltered drum/effects track and added piano, guitar, drums, vocals and some synths. For the video I decided to follow jack conte’s “video song” format, where:
1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).

Hope you like it.

Hey. I just finished recording a cover of “Souvenir” by OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark). I’d consider this mix a “beta” mix, but it’s pretty close. Listen below:

Souvenir – DOWNLOAD

I haven’t created a music video for my cover version yet, but for the time being check out the original OMD video below. I’d like to do a similar video, except I’ll be driving my racecar wearing my full race gear and helmet. And instead of driving off into the distance at the end, I’ll do a bunch of donuts and smokey burnouts.

Just put together a music video for my new song “Please Stop”. Everything was shot in los angeles.

Please Stop – DOWNLOAD

lyrics

please stop believing
that nature will care for you
crawl up the river
and embrace your solitude.

heartbeat slows, your wounds won’t close?

please stop believing
that your friends can keep you safe
squeeze your little hands
they tingle, but you can still feel

don’t come around here anymore
it’s the only thing i ask of you

please stop your talking
who is that in my head?
please stop, i don’t want to go
i know you barely had a chance to know
please let me go quickly
will it hurt? i could be wrong.

Song-a-week / video-a-week #5. “Let’s Get Bloody”. Recorded for the upcoming SongFight. This was recorded live, nothing prerecorded, nothing overdubbed after the fact… all live looping.

Let’s Get Bloody – DOWNLOAD

This was recorded live using two Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro’s, a Casio SK-8, Yamaha DX21, Line 6 DL4 and my voice. If you have any questions or comments about the setup, gear or the song in general, please comment below.

this week i’ve fulfilled my video-a-week requirement with a dumb song about my beard. the stop motion took a few hours to do but it was nice to finally get a haircut and shave this terrible beard.

Welcome to Week #3 in the 2010 State Shirt song-a-week video-a-week extravaganza and all-star revue. I wrote this one for SongFight. You should definitely head on over there and listen to all the songs in the fight.

Keep All Your Promises – DOWNLOAD – Lyrics

No lip-syncing, no instrument-syncing. What you see is what you hear. Hope you like it!

Don’t forget to subscribe

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel, where all of this video-a-week stuff will be posted. They’ll also be on my FaceBook page. Come on and join me there too!

Let me know if you have any suggestions for this project. Video ideas, cover song suggestions, questions about my gear, or anything else. I’d love to hear from you. Please comment below!

So I took a look back at the last 10 years and realized that I’ve only released maybe 30 songs. On one hand I’m happy that I’ve had the opportunity to create this music, collaborate with others and even just have some gear in this small bedroom studio. On the other hand, 30 songs in 10 years is only 3 songs a year. That’s pretty pathetic. Not that it’s necessary to be prolific. But it’s apparent that I’ve only spent a small part of my life working on music in the last 10 years. Or at least finishing it. I have gigabytes of unfinished songs sleeping in the corners of my studio.

I’ve been following a couple artists that have really inspired me over the last few weeks (namely Amanda Palmer and Jack Conte). I’m inspired by the fact that they are creative at every turn and make a career for themselves by being an artist every day. I’m done being an artist every 2 to 3 weeks. I’m sick of this being a hobby. So what do I do? Put music first and stop fucking around.

A song a week. AND a video a week.

Ok I know the song-a-week is not an new idea (Jonathan Coulton did it 5 years ago). But the idea is simple. Create something every day, and get some new music out there every week. The videos may range from simple acoustic performances to gear demos to full-blown music videos, depending on how much sleep I can go without.

At the end of the year I’ll compile them into albums and move the rejects to the dumpster.

Subscribe to my Youtube channel

So with that, here’s an invitation to subscribe to my YouTube channel, where all of these videos will be posted. They’ll also be on my FaceBook page. Come on and join me there as well!

Let me know if you have any suggestions for this project. Video ideas, cover song suggestions, questions about my gear, or anything else. I’d love to hear from you. Please comment below!

Here are the first couple videos from the project: “Crush” and “Frostbite”. Hope you like ‘em.

Last week I recorded the new song “Crush”. Hope you like it.

Crush – DOWNLOAD – Lyrics

This week I gave myself the challenge of creating a music video in 7 days.

Budget was $0. The shopping cart was left on my street and the paper was from old fashion and art magazines. Ok I guess there was a little expense because I bought Dragon stop motion animation software (which is awesome by the way). This is my first foray into stop motion animation but I’m sure I’ll do more… it’s incredibly time consuming but supah fun.

Thanks to Angela Heine for shooting the shopping cart footage and for pushing me around for an hour!

Now I must sleep…

i was inspired by jack conte’s video songs and wanted to put together one of my own. i’m following his rules that he uses for his videos:

“1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).”

hope you like it. the song is also on songfight right now. head on over to listen to all of the songs in the fight.