The Way It Is

New EP available with eBook

The Way It Is — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:30:31 +0000

Hello, True Believers. Please accept my apologies for not updating The Weekly Warble in forever. Hard times have been had on my end of the world and we hope to get moving again soon… In the meantime, I just thought you might like to know about an eBook that was just released by Happy Cobra Books entitled [...]

Dar Williams

The Way It Is — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:23:44 +0000

A song I wrote back in 2000 about New England folk singer Dar Williams. I was a huge fan at the time but beginning to get a little disturbed at her mainstream success. The drums were played by my brother (who is better acquainted with punk rock than I am) and recorded in an old [...]

Pretty In Pink

The Way It Is — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:56:22 +0000

The Psychedelic Furs were one of my favorite bands in high school and I still contend that Richard Butler is one of the best vocalists of 1980’s pop music. I loved his raspy voice and, perhaps even more, his engaging lyrics and stunning melodies. And if you haven’t heard his later band, Love Spit Love, [...]

Triple Word Score

The Way It Is — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:35:19 +0000

My friend Brittain Ashford wrote this song a while ago and when I first heard it there was something about it, lyrically and melodically, that really stuck with me. It is my favorite of her songs and knew I would cover it eventually. As it happens, I’ll be playing drums in her band on tour [...]

Will You Ever?

The Way It Is — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:45:15 +0000

This song was originally performed by my old band The New Death Show (circa 1997) but we never got around to recording it, so I tried to do it justice myself (circa 1999). Yikes! Another of my early, somewhat embarrassing forays into electronic music, this track ended up sounding like a collaboration between Depeche Mode [...]

Forget The Dark

The Way It Is — Mon, 18 May 2009 05:37:11 +0000

This is a cover of a song by Seattle band Wesafari. It had a limited release on Levi Fuller’s Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly. He had the fun idea to get a bunch of contributors together and pull names out of a hat for our submissions. I must admit, I was secretly hoping to get [...]

The New Black

The Way It Is — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:33:21 +0000

I was listening to a lot of Sunny Day Real Estate when I recorded this song. It is presented here as an instrumental but I’m sure there are words to it floating around somewhere… I think the drums were played by a guy named Dave Turco. He was from DC and we only played together [...]

Another Cigarette

The Way It Is — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:50:54 +0000

Well, here I am again. Stuck between posting nothing at all or something worthy of cringes (at least on my part). This is a song I haven’t let anyone hear in many years. Partly because I’m embarrassed of it musically and partly because I’m embarrassed of it emotionally. You’d think I was old to enough [...]

Walcott

The Way It Is — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:34:50 +0000

I found this Vampire Weekend cover in my recordings and thought it was interesting enough to post here. I especially love the change in sounds on the bridge from guitar and crashing waves to an organ and campfire at night… I can’t recall why I chose this particular song since there are so many on the [...]

The Raincoat

The Way It Is — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:18:27 +0000

I wrote this song back in December. It’s obviously a departure from my recent output but I’m into it just the same. I like to imagine it’s part of the soundtrack for a fictional suspense thriller called The Raincoat.