New year, new tune. This song began life in 2007 as an acoustic demo; this is a new "electric" arrangement.
Years ago I thought I was in a serious relationship with someone who didn't see it the same way. She was right, and I was too immature to know better. As I slogged through the requisite depression and squished self-esteem, I became weirded out by the idea that the city we lived in was big enough to swallow us whole. We could live within a few miles of each other, maybe even live out whole lives here, and never cross paths again, as if we'd suddenly been thrust into parallel dimensions the moment we ended it.
Despite the sad-sack lyrics the music itself was a lot of fun to record, and incorporates a lot of my early musical influences. Extra points if you can name the famous singer guy I'm aping at the end of the second verse :)
The lo-fi MP3 is free when you log in. The high-quality MP3 is one thin dollar and also includes an instrumental version, the acoustic version (also high-quality) and artwork. Lyrics are after the jump. Enjoy, and happy 2009!
Scott Andrew - We Had A Good Thing
[audio:misc/Scott Andrew - We Had A Good Thing (128k).mp3]
Buy MP3 bundle for $1 (ZIP file, 320k, includes bonus solo acoustic and instrumental versions)
the sun sinks behind the clouds
and I’ve been driving around for hours
in this city where we met so long ago
and the streets here hum like wires
and the last 12 years unwind
I am haunting the old places we would go
and I can’t invent
the words to say how much it meant
just to be there beside you breathing in
each moment that we spent
and we had a good thing
you told me so
but what do I know?
what do I know?
yeah we had a good thing
but we let it go
so what do I know?
what do I know?
waves crash against the pier
and I’ve been gone all these years
a familiar skyline holds no sense of mystery
and you’re fading in and out
like a signal, like the radio
the shadows of the long-forgotten ghosts
we used to be
and I never had
a reason I should feel so sad
you can have every street and sidewalk
if you wanted them so bad
and we had a good thing
you told me so
but what do I know?
what do I know?
yeah we had a good thing
but we let it go
so what do I know?
what do I know?
and I guess this city’s big enough without you
yeah I guess this city’s big enough without you
and we had a good thing
you told me so
but what do I know?
what do I know?
yeah we had a good thing
but we let it go
so what do I know?
what do I know?
2008 is at an end. As always, thanks for reading and listening, and for your support both online and off. Man, this has been a nutty year of ups-and-downs for me. Some really cool stuff has happened. I put out a record, threw a CD release show which went over awesomely, started playing bass with a really cool band and managed to record a bunch of new tunes. I also made a bunch of new friends, reconnected with some old ones (no, not Great Old Ones, but thanks), taught myself a little Tuvan throat-singing and was promptly banned from doing it in the house. Overall, a good year personally and creatively.
This past August I made an effort to ease up on the incessant blogging here. I only post a few times a month now, and I try to limit it to when I have something new for you to listen to. Best idea EVER. I've weaned myself off the need to post something just to post something, and instead I've been focusing on writing and recording more songs -- which is the whole reason why I'm here, and hopefully why you're here, too.
As a result, I've released a ton of new music this year and plan to continue this through 2009. So if I go quiet for a few weeks, know that it's likely because I'm working on something new I hope you'll think is awesome and worth your time.
That's my only resolution and motto for the new year: Worth Your Time In 2009.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find out that both U2 and Sarah Brightman are releasing covers of "I Believe In Father Christmas," the very same song I myself covered last year. As I've mentioned before, cruel, cruel fate has decided that any song I cover will soon be covered by someone way more famous than me. Dave Matthews recently claimed "Sledgehammer" so I see no evidence that this is not a universal law or giant conspiracy planned years before my birth.
November kind of slipped past me and out the side door, music-wise. However, I am pleased to offer you this all-instrumental version of Save You From Yourself. Suitable for podcasts, video and other projects where the presence of my warbling throat-noises are not required.
This one's free to everyone, no login required, and I'm releasing it under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. It's a giant ZIP file so I hope you brought a fast connection and a lunch. The original album is still available here, in exchange for money. Enjoy.
File under PURE AWESOME: the first Explone record, Crooks, is finally available on iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.
I was a fan of this album long before I joined as the bass player. Now you too can be drawn into the massive oceanic guitars of "The Highest Time," just like I was. I must've air-guitared the bass line to that tune a hundred times before I got up the nerve to audition.
Not that it matters now, but a few weeks back I donated a few tunes to Local Voices For Obama, a series of short video interviews with swing-state voters on why they're voting for (now President-Elect) Obama.
I'm not sure when or where they aired, but I just found them all on YouTube and they came out pretty nice. Here's one that uses At The Airport in the background:
The hard drive on my recording computer is nearly full. I didn't think this was possible, but here we are. I recall my first "real" PC came with a 40MB (that's megabyte) hard drive. Surely I'd never need more storage than that, oh ho ho!
These days, 40MB is about the average size of Gravel Road Requiem in WAV format. Also, I have JPGs that are bigger than the Zork trilogy combined.
I am still playing bass with Explone, although we are still firmly in NDA mode after taking most of the summer off, the departure of one drummer and the return of another. We have recorded a few songs. They rock. You'll see.
In the end we did not prevail in the Ourstage competition, but thank you for voting all the same.
In more awesome news, listener Suichi used Holding Back in this Hokkaido motorcycle tour video. Pretty sweet:
(There are also tons more songs on the music and demos pages, don'tcha know.)
It's Thanksgiving month. My thanks to you, for listening and enabling my pseudo-rock star habit with your attention, encouragement and occasional hard-earned dollars. I'm working on another new song for this month, so don't wander too far.
I intended to write a spooky tune for Halloween, but failed utterly. And given the global financial-ocalypse and the upcoming election, there's already plenty to be creeped out about. And also this song has "ghost" in the title so I guess that'll have to do.
Instead of spooky, I bring you angry. I wrote this tune back in February and although I meant it to be a mostly acoustic number, I was heavily under the influence of Bob Mould's latest and convinced that the world could really use more electric guitars going BWA-NA-NA-NA-NA over everything.
(As for the lyrics: open to interpretation. Feel free to superimpose your favorite psychosocial meatgrinder experience.)
As is the new tradition here, the 128k file is free when you log in. You can also get a high-quality 320k file, along with bonus solo acoustic and instrumental versions and artwork in a handy ZIP file for one thin US dollar.
Scott Andrew - Gold Star (Feel Like A Ghost)
[audio:misc/Scott Andrew - Gold Star (Feel Like A Ghost) (128k).mp3]
Buy MP3 bundle for $1 (ZIP file, 320k, includes bonus solo acoustic and instrumental versions)
so you've come to set me straight
an irresistible disaster
so hold me up against the others
maybe we'll both find what we're after
'cause it doesn't take much
it hardly takes anything
to make me feel like a ghost these days
invisible — ethereal —
and just a gold star by my name
so say you want to keep me safe
'cause I want to be someone worth saving
but I'm always leaving one door open
for whenever you get tired of waiting
'cause it doesn't take much
it hardly takes anything
to make me feel like a ghost these days
invisible — ethereal —
and just a gold star by my name
cut away the ropes and skin that
tie us down and hem us in
did you think I'd fall for that again?
and all the things I've ever wanted
were things that needed to be given
another house been doused for burnin'
just blame it on another bad decision
'cause it doesn't take much
it hardly takes anything
to make me feel like a ghost these days
invisible — ethereal —
and just a gold star by my name
it doesn't take much
it hardly takes anything
to make me feel like a ghost these days
invisible — ethereal —
and just a gold star by my name
My pal Jim Santanella, who helped me record Save You From Yourself in his home studio, has released a new album of his own: Cold Rain. Congrats Jim!
The songs on Cold Rain are appropriately dark without being overtly morose, evocative of those bright days in winter that punctuate the endless weeks of drizzle. I sing the harmonies on "Wonder" and "Sketches" and contributed the David Gilmour-sound-alike solo at the tail end of "She." But my favorite track is the sparse closer "Last Show." Do give it a spin.
New year, new tune. This song began life in 2007 as an acoustic demo; this is a new "electric" arrangement.
This audio work by Scott Andrew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
November kind of slipped past me and out the side door, music-wise. However, I am pleased to offer you this all-instrumental version of Save You From Yourself. Suitable for podcasts, video and other projects where the presence of my warbling throat-noises are not required.
