Lyrics

It's raining right now, which sucks. Weather has a way of factoring into my mood. If it's cloudy and dreary, I can't be all the way happy, whereas if it's really sunny outside, I feel alive and vibrant. I've written a lot of my best songs when it was sunny outside.

I have a song in the works for my first album on my tiny little label King Meerkat Records (named after an extremely old song of mine). It's called "All in my Head" for now, and it doesn't have lyrics yet. I always have a hard time writing lyrics because I don't know what to write about. I'm either forcing it too hard, or I'm not forcing it and the words are stupid anyways.

The chorus is easy.

"All in my head, it's all in my head/
All in my head, it's all in my head/
all in my head, it's all in my head, yeah."

And I'm happy with it. But it needs more. What's in my head exactly?

There are some songs that are really good and barely need any lyrics at all. Check out this song by the Stone Roses. There's a long fade-in, so if you can't hear anything, wait a little while.



"I don't have to sell my soul
he's already in me.

I wanna be adored."

That's the lyrics.

The music's so awesome that it barely needs any words at all. I'm not sure if the song I'm working on can afford that luxury, unfortunately. I just need to think it through some, I guess. Or not. Or something.

Music news: New JRH album on the way?

Perhaps. I have a list of songs that are either completed songs waiting to be recorded or new ideas that need lyrics. I'm ditching sludge and getting back into pop, this time with a folk lean.

Only two more months of private composition instruction!

Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Unfortunately, I need ten minutes of music for the semester, and I only have three minutes completed. Boo.

Good morning!

The world spends on its Axl

So the eternal question- what will come first, the release of Guns n' Roses' Chinese Democracy or a democratic revolution in China- has been answered. Nowadays, the Guns of Guns n' Roses represents the hired guns Axl brings in to replace Slash, Duff, Izzy, etc, while the Roses part, of course, represents frontman and resident egomaniac/ musical genius Axl Rose. You'd think that the conflicts and the 17-year delay horrorstories that shade the album would foreshadow something like a musical 4o,000-car trainwreck. Well, actually, it's really good.

I mean, it's not something that screams "Timeless Masterpiece", but it is really good. The songs are good. They are catchy and well-written. The sound is vast and powerful. It sounds like something pieced together over 17 years, but it flows seamlessly. The rockers rock, the power ballads are pretty. When it wants to be poppy and catchy, it's poppy and catchy. There's nothing ironic or unintentional about this album's pleasures. This album is a great album. Period.

Exhaustion

I'm exhausted. I don't get enough sleep. Maybe I should drink more coffee, because I don't have time to sleep.

Sometimes I need that time alone to chill with my computer. I feel like a zombie if I don't get it.

Maybe I should get used to that zombie feeling of efficiency.

I try to meditate and get rid of those stupid thoughts that clog up my brain. It's really hard to just stop thinking. At least for me it is.

I was losing weight nicely, but then BAM, Chinese put me back where I started. Time to start ordering less...

I can't time manage. I've tried. I just don't have time to manage my time, it seems. Either that or I just never get around to it. Like cleaning my room. My room is a total wreck right now, but I never feel like cleaning it. And it's not like I don't like having a clean room, it's just that the results of having a clean room never seem to be worth the work it takes to keep it there. Damn.

Modern Music And Retarded Baby Animals

Last Semester, I had to write a piece for unaccompanied clarinet.  I named it Retarded Baby Animals because that's what I thought atonal chamber music sounds like.  It will be premiered April 17th in the School of Music Recital Hall.

Movements:

I: Victor The Mutant Penguin From The Nigerian Tundra

(named after my friend Victor, who actually is from Nigeria)

II: Timothy The Turtle Zombie

(named after my friend Tim, and contains elements from the Turtles' "Happy Together" and the Zombies' "Time Of The Season)

III: Christopher The Almost Flying Squirrel

(named after my friend Miggles)

IV: Jordan The Afro'd Platypus

(named after my friend Jordan, though I don't chill with him as much as I used to.)

It will be premiered by Melissa Morales, and I'm actually meeting up with her today to tell her it's fine no matter what she plays.

That's the thing with modern music- it's all about the titles.

With my new piece, like most pieces of modern music, the title is everything, and the music is nothing.

Here's the titles of different pieces of music, and the points of the title for each.

The Beatles- "She Loves You"- See now you remember the song's hook, which goes "She loves you yeah yeah yeah."

Beethoven- "Symphony #5 In C minor"- It's the fifth symphony he wrote.  And it happens to be in the key of C Minor.  Fancy that.

Dead Kennedys- "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now"- The song was an updated version of "California Uber Alles", but the Dead Kennedys believed that President Ronald Reagan was a bigger problem than Governor Jerry Brown, the subject of the original "California Uber Alles", was.

James Hunter- "Retarded Baby Animals"- to make people laugh and forget how shitty the piece is.

Why I Quit Music Composition

Fuck you, Arnold Schoenberg.  Your music sounds like ass, and your pretentious use of dissonance has given hundreds of shitty composers an excuse to continue making shitty music.

Anyways, here are reasons I am switching majors away from Music Composition.

1.  I hate the other composers and their music, except for Giselle Eastman.  She's cool.

2.  I hate Finale and music scoring in general.

3.  I hate being instructed.  I'd rather learn to make music by recording it myself, and learning through trial and error (the only way I really learn).  There's a good reason none of my favorite pop songwriters ever had training.

4.  It was sucking the passion out of me.  My instruction was Monday morning.  I was making music Sunday night.

5.  I've been getting into music journalism.  You know why?  Because you can criticize.  

Art, according to pretentious pieces of shit, is perfect because it is what the artist intended, so if you don't like it, then there's obviously something wrong with you.

Screw art.  I like rock and roll.

This of course does not mean I will stop making music, which you can listen to here.  I'll continue making music, but I'll be making it for me and for you, and not for Alejandro, my instructor.