PODCAST 2 "here's where the story ends..."

FUN DEFICIT (podcast)
presents PODCAST #2
"... here's where the story ends... "

1. Sky Ferriera - "Animal (Miike Snow cover)"
2. Belle and Sebastian - "A Century of Fakers"
3. Fun Deficit - "Believe (smashing pumpkins cover)"
4. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - "It's a Wonderful Life"
5. Kings of Convenience - "Love is no big truth"
6. The Sundays - "Here's where the story ends" (live on french radio)
7. Styrofoam - "Couches in Alleys" feat. ben gibbard
8. Fun Deficit - "Love Won't Wait"
9. Blueboy - "So Catch Him"
10. Youth Group - "Forever Young"
11. Fun Deficit - "Van, by yourself"
12. Defiance Ohio - "Road signs always look better looking over your shoulder"
13. Hauschka - "Heimat"
14. Club 8 - "Spring came, rain fell"
15. The Radio Dept. - "A Token of Gratitude"
16. Small Factory - "If you hurt me"
17. That dog. - "Being with you"
18. Fun Deficit - "Karla"


Here's a podcast for you, a mix. I made this to put my songs in a lovely context. This mix is road songs and love songs about not being in love right now.


1. Sky Ferriera - "Animal (Miike Snow cover)" - I love this girl's voice. She's only 17 years old and she sounds like Cat Power.
2. Belle and Sebastian - "A Century of Fakers" - One of my favorite belle and sebastian songs. "If you ever go lardy or go lame, I will drop you straight away."
3. Fun Deficit - "Believe (smashing pumpkins cover)" - I've been listening to a ton of Smashing Pumpkins lately, inexplicably. I just love them and I've always loved this song, so I decided to cover it and it ended up sounding a lot like the Radio Dept.,
4. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - "It's a Wonderful Life" I just saw Streetlight Manifesto play live and this is them acoustic. They're so relentlessly positive. I can't listen to it enough.

5. Kings of Convenience - "Love is no big truth" Not really sure if we should listen to Billy Corgan and The Pumpkins for love advice, but I listen and believe in the love advice from Kings of Convenience.
6. The Sundays - "Here's where the story ends" (live on french radio) Brad says this is one of two decent songs they'd play at the department store where he used to work. I love this song and I love the girl's voice. The lyrics are fantastic and the song is just two chords.
7. Styrofoam - "Couches in Alleys" feat. ben gibbard - This song is an open letter to Jack Kerouac. I recently proposed to one of my friends she start a band of all open letters, like this and Leonard Cohen's "famous blue raincoat."

8. Fun Deficit - "Love Won't Wait" - A new song I wrote in one day. Written for my new album, but not written about me. A response song to Radiohead's "True Love Waits."
9. Blueboy - "So Catch Him" - love blueboy. Sarah Records twee from 1995
10. Youth Group - "Forever Young" (alphaville cover) I love the Jay Z song sampling this, but this cover speaks to my indie aesthetic. Classic.
11. Fun Deficit - "Van, by yourself" - a response song to Small Factory's "if you hurt me" - reference to a car, sensitivity, and a sly joke and lack of seriousness at the end.
12. Defiance Ohio - "Road signs always look better looking over your shoulder" - I saw DOH about a month ago and I loved it. I try to pitch them to my friends as the "Arcade Fire of the Gutterpunks" but I'm still the only person I know who likes them. Maybe they're more like a "yelling Weakerthans."
13. Hauschka - "Heimat" - beautiful prepared piano. Jaw-droppingly beautiful.
14. Club 8 - "Spring came, rain fell" - I love her voice so much and when I listen to this I imagine she's only singing to me.
15. The Radio Dept. - "A Token of Gratitude" - I love minimalist love songs. All it needs to say is "Do I love you? Yes I love you. But easy come, easy go..."
16. Small Factory - "If you hurt me" - Simple and emotional, what I like. "If you hurt me I'll be angry and I'll be sad."
17. That dog. - "Being with you" - the radder girl-weezer from the 1990s. I feel like I'm their only fan now.
18. Fun Deficit - "Karla" - With all the songs about love lost, this is the song in which I get the girl.


Further Reading

Braid - "I keep a Diary"

PODCAST

I made a radio show of some songs I like:

Club 8, Royksopp, acoustic and electronic mostly, indie pop. Things I like, in earnest.

Listen here:

http://soundcloud.com/fun-deficit/podcast

NEW FUN DEFICIT

http://www.last.fm/music/Fun+Deficit/Aries+and+Afterward/this+is+the+west+coast+and+a+kiss+means+everything

I am now on Last.fm, where you can stream and download my music.

I'll go mainstream without kicking nor screaming.

I played a show on Friday May 1, 2009 and this is what I played:

Intellectual Sweetie (the tennies, my old band, cover)
Syncronised Sinking (the Lucksmiths cover)
Do you love coffee? (braid cover)
Clover (newish song)
Kiss Me Thru The Phone (Soldja Boy cover, abandoned quite soonish)
Frost (newish song)


I love this song by Soulja Boy.

The Music of Michael Morrissey.

The Music of Michael Morrissey

Currently, I am involved with a project called Apples of the Earth. This began out of my friend Brads’ band Rocket Punch. Rocket Punch was a one person band, but Jessica was recruited through a Craigslist ad. Jessica had previously played in a garage rock band called The Flank. Rocket Punch played one show and wrote one song as a band and then reverted to a one man band. Apples of the Earth was formed directly thereafter and played one show and began recording. Here are two songs we’ve done.

“Pearl Jam is not a very good band.” This song is a response song to local radio station KNRK playing Pearl Jam so often, claiming they are an alternative station but still playing singles from nearly fifteen years ago. It is a joke in the sense that music can never really be qualified as “good” despite people constantly doing so. This song also displays my affinity for songs without choruses. I play guitar, sing, and play Hammond organ. Jessica plays drums. It was recorded in June 2007 on an Apple notebook computer using GarageBand and the internal microphone.

Link: Apples of the Earth - "Pearl Jam is not a very good band."

“One Fine Day” is Jessica’s favorite song to play. This song has choruses, albeit non-repeating ones. In an interview with the group Jawbreaker, I heard them describe parts of their songs as “grace notes.” This referred to the section near the end of the song that gave the listener and the band time to reflect upon the song, while not actually repeating it. It would normally be the part for the guitar solo, except the whole band plays equally. I tried to do that in the end of this song.

Link: Apples of the Earth - "One Fine Day"

“Smile, Come with me and” was originally a Castawaves song. The Castawaves were a band comprised of me on drums and my friend Jason on guitar. I borrowed a drum set and brought it to college during my sophomore year. No one else who wanted to start a band had a drum kit, so even though I didn't know how to play I decided it would be best to just start. This song is the first song on our EP, which was both entitled and released during the "Summer of 2003." TheCastawaves version of this song is slower and sounds like the Red House Painters, despite Jason, having never heard Red House Painters. For Apples of the Earth, we sped up the song a bit and played the guitar with a little more attack and bite. The result is an aggressive love song with passive lyrics. Jason wrote most of this song, but I wrote the drum parts and contributed the line “I’m with friends and I’ll ditch them for you.”

To hear the Apples of the Earth version click: http://www.myspace.com/applesoftheearth

To hear the Castawaves version click: Castawaves - "Smile, come with me and"

Like my childhood introduction to music, Phil Collins, I saw no problem with singing and playing drums at the same time. In Castawaves, I did just that. One of my favorite songs was the one that I took for the name of this weblog. “The Day We Never Went Home” is a semi-imaginary tale of running away from an undefined school. I have always loved runaway songs and consider them to often be more fulfilling to listen to than love songs. In the end of this song, I quoted lines from other artists I listened to a lot at the time, Elliott Smith and Pretty Girls Make Graves. All music is quotes from some other music, so why not just state it?

This recording comes from a live performance on April 26, 2003 that was captured quite well on minidisk. I think my drumming was at its peak then.

Castawaves - "The Day We Never Went Home"

The Tennies. In the summer of 2003 my friend Colleen and I had the great idea to secretly write and record an album that was entirely biographical. We chose our mutual friend and my roommate Joe M as the source of the stories for these. Songs are always so great when they are specific and local, and this really captured that feeling. After the album was complete we cornered Joe and sat him down to listen to it. Confrontation in art is always great and Joe was shocked at first, then flattered, and is now nostalgic that the songs captured his life in college for all time.

Two of the Tennies songs are available on my friend’s website at http://www.glassanimalindex.com/ in the “media” section.

“Kickback” was the story of Joe befriending a middle aged, NASCAR-loving, redneck co-worker named Dennis while working on the maintenance/moving crew at college. This song is another example of my affinity for songs without choruses. This song throws statements about Joe (“he knew how to operate a screwdriver and wanted to make ten dollars an hour”) and Dennis (“he has aspirations to buy a plasma big screen TV”) that tell the story and basically sets a high-water mark for fun. The name of the song comes from Joe’s on-the-job nickname due to his willingness to relax and take breaks.

The Tennies - "Kickback"

“A Secret Secret” is another song from the album, which we called “Oh! Poor Joe.” This one is meant to taunt Joe a bit, but then appeases him with a spoken word bit about how to gain infinite lives on Super Mario Brothers II. I don’t even like video games, but Joe said once that he’d pay me ten dollars to record me playing guitar and singing video game cheats because he thought it was so funny. We figured by track three Joe might hate us for making sport of him and his life, so we did this to cheer him up.

The Tennies - "A Secret Secret"

Michael Mahoney, owner of GlassAnimalIndex.com, remixed the songs, and you can listen to those on the site too. These songs were originally recorded on a Sony notebook computer with a standard computer microphone plugged in. I used a program called MultiTrack Recorder and sang and played guitar. Colleen played Casio keyboard and also sang.

When I first learned guitar and multi-track recording, I recorded four songs for a CD called “Fun Deficit,” but those songs are too old and embarrassing to show here.

Thank you for listening.

Apples OTE mentioned on Indie MP3

Apples of the Earth received an approving nod on indie-mp3.co.uk

http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/2007/07/my-space-has-talent.html

(Photo: rain on the sunroof of my VW.)

Apples of the Earth - "Pearl Jam is not a very good band."

I'm not going to give you an mp3 of this yet. It's not finished. But some recording is better than no recording. This is my band's song "Pearl Jam is not a very good band." You can hear it on our Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/applesoftheearth

This song is a response song to the local 94.7FM KNRK radio station playing Pearl Jam all the time. I should also mention that we are available to play shows in the greater Portland, Oregon area. So book us a show at your house or at your favorite club! Here are the lyrics. Enjoy.

Pearl Jam is all you ever wanted in a band. You bought all their record company issued live bootlegs from their old tour. Did you buy them for the Who covers, or because you wanted to hear "Daughter" as performed in Milan, Italy in the summer of 1998? Would you like me
any better if I were Eddie Vedder. Yeah you would, and truthfully I would too. What's the song about the lonely woman behind the counter in the small town? I've not heard that one in years or if I did, neither I nor Jessica could remember it. What's the guitarists name anyway? Was it Mike? Did you like Yield, Versus, the new album with the avocado on the cover? Did you buy it the first week it was out? I tried to get you in to Pavement and Built to Spill. I made you a
CD-R of "There's nothing wrong with love," but I don't think you listened to it. So hey I give up, yeah I quit.

Rocket Punch broke up.

Sorry, fans. Rocket Punch broke up! Instead, Apples of the Earth, our new band, will be playing a house show this friday - March 16, 2006 - in SE PDX with Hurah Hurah and The Clearing.

Come to the show to hear the new hit "Pearl Jam is not a very good band" before it hits MTV Europe.

Fun Deficit - "This Is The Dream of Evan and Chan"

I have a lot of posts on this blog that you don't see. I write them up and decide not to post them. I had the idea to post this song back in October, but didn't, and I haven't posted any exclusive music since then. So here's a song that I recorded. It's the song "This is the dream of Evan and Chan" by Dntel/Ben Gibbard aka The Postal Service. I recorded it back in 2002 in Geneseo, before I also realized I was in love with Cat Power. It's kind of whiny, so be warned. For the record, I recorded two discs of 'official' material as Fun Deficit. The first was the self titled ep: four songs released in 2002. I made copies of this and gave most of them to my friends and one to Bob Nanna. Then I recorded "When I Forgot What I Had Been Wishing For" which was so good that I never made any copies for anyone. It still might be too good. Anyway, enjoy this cover. If I were to bust into the same song right now, my roommate Greg would probably cover his end of the heat vent with a pillow.

Fun Deficit - "This Is The Dream of Evan and Chan"

In case you don't know: Evan, Chan
This song's entry on Wikipedia: LINK

It was familiar to me,
the smoke too thick to breathe.
The tile floors glistened;
I slowly stirred my drink.
And when you started to sing, you spoke with broken speech
That I could not understand,
and then you grabbed me tightly.

I won't let go, I won't let go.
Even if you say so, oh no.
I've tried and tried with no results.
I won't let go, I won't let go.

He then played every song from nineteen ninety three.
The crowd applauded as he curtsied bashfully.
Your eyelashes tickled my neck with every nervous blink,
And it was perfect until the telephone started
Ringing ringing ringing ringing ringing off...

Boyracer - "I've got it and it's not worth having."

Have I mentioned lately that I'm obsessed with Sarah Records? I bought another one of their 7"s on ebay this week, but this one isn't it. This one might be next. It's the band Boyracer, from England, with a great song. Here's a video for it and the lyrics.



I can't even remember a summer day
so much wasted on movement.

Last night alone in your car,
unable to speak.
With every word uncovered.

I've got it and it's not worth having.

And I drink to forget.
Yet increase the distance
I'm trying so hard to be late
It's permanent
This has happened over you.
drink myself stupid and I'm feeling stupid over you.

I've got it and it's not worth having.

(awesome build up and solo)

I've got it and it's not worth having.
I've got it and it's not worth having.
I've got it and it's not worth having.
I've got it and it's not worth having.

===
I love Boyracer, especially this song because this might be where emo and indie pop and punk meet. The verses might be mistaken for Jawbreaker taken on their own. The sound is more midwest USA than midlands UK, and the song was covered by The Lucksmiths
for a Sarah tribute 7" on Matinee! This is fantastic and it reminds me
that one of my favorite blogs that covers all of this is called href="http://www.thesoundofindie.com/">The Sound of Indie

Also, Boyracer is on Yellow Mica Recordings along with my new band ROCKET PUNCH! So, we are labelmates pretty much, no?

Rocket Punch's song "Pink Cashmere" - I don't know why I didn't pick up on this before - is track ten on the "C06" compilation put together by Indie MP3 dot co dot UK! How great is that? Check it out here:
http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/2006/07/c06.html

Relevant Wikipedia links:
Boyracer (phenomenon)
C86 (music)

===
I have been working on other things lately including the Scoot.net FAQ. I
wrote a big bit about touring on a scooter: Scoot.net FAQ

Rocket Punch plays their first show!

Rocket Punch played live for the first time on December 1, 2006.

We played the following:

Kafka on the S.
Michael, Don't Go To Private School
Emma's House (The Field Mice cover)
Pink Cashmere
Dan: The Song
Better Lives
Dumb Kid
Posters for Cats Disappeared (The Capstan Shafts cover)
Sucked Out (Superdrag cover)



In case you missed it, here is a recording of us practicing our song, "Dan: The Song" which is about this kid right here.

Rocket Punch - "Dan: The Song" (Rehearsal - November 14, 2006) link

Thank you to all who attended! SOON WE WILL BE BIGGER THAN U2!

Also, we have 1" buttons, the hip kind, available. Email me for details.

Also, our CDs are available from www.yellowmicarecordings.com

Rocket Punch performs live!!!

As was reported way back here, Rocket Punch is releasing their first record. It is entitled "BLOOD ON THE UKELELE" and is available from Swedish label Yellow Mica Recordings.

I have joined the live band of Rocket Punch and we are playing our first show this Friday. It is free. It will be good times. It is going to be at The Waypost.

(Don, I'm not a woman.)

A long time ago there was a band called the Castawaves.

Also, Happy wedding Mike Mahoney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rocket Punch set to release "BLOOD ON THE UKELELE"

Rocket Punch is releasing the new record, entitled "Blood on the Ukelele" on Yellow Mica Recordings. Rocket Punch is the solo project from Brad, formerly of Geneseo, New York's synth-pop heartthrobs The Pink Cammies. Yellow Mica Recordings is a Swedish record label that has formerly released 7"s and CDRs of The Capstan Shafts, Boyracer, and Javelins.

The record is truly great and has five songs Brad that have been in the works for the past year. If you are the type to constantly compare bands, I would have to tell you that it sounds like Saturday Looks Good to Me, The Capstan Shafts, Pinback, and The Pink Cammies. However, Brad would say it sounds like Jonathan Richman, Brian Wilson, Jeff Gilbert, The Capstan Shafts, Ariel Pink, Kevin Shields, and KK Slider. Furthermore, my opinion is one of these songs is the best song Brad has ever written, though I'll let you guess which one that might be.

Blood on the Ukelele:

1. Pink Cashmere
2. Better Lives
3. Small Volcanoes
4. Michael Don't go to private school
5. Kafka on the S.

The first two songs can be heard already at:
http://www.myspace.com/rocketpunch/

Also, I should include the address for Yellow Mica Recordings:
http://www.yellowmicarecordings.com/

Yellow Mica Recordings is run by a member of the group Javelins, and this is my favorite song of theirs:
Javelins - "I Was Raised as A Polar Bear."

Enchante - "When You Sleep"

I bought the album “Loveless” by My Bloody Valentine many years ago, in the summer of 2000 on a trip to Canada. I listened to it, and it sounded like nothing else I had in my measly CD collection, but then it somehow disappeared. I don’t know where it is now. But, that doesn’t matter now. We have this recording. Brad and Russell from the now legendary Geneseo, NY band The Pink Cammies recorded a cover version of the track “When You Sleep” from that album. It sounds nothing like the original. It’s probably the opposite of the original. It is a perfect companion piece to “Game Over, Baby,” the Pink Cammies’ sole release (if you don’t count the tee shirt). Brad sings first, and then Russell comes in. I can’t remember if I participated in the clap along, but I was around when they recorded this, as they recorded it in Brad’s room and he and I were housemates. Add this to your playlists and let it under your skin.

Enchante - "When You Sleep" (My Bloody Valentine cover)