hording it for so long that I was starting to worry if people still wanted it or not. What started
in late 2004 as a bunch of congenial e-mails ("Hey, still waiting for the CD to come out!")
ended up in late 2005 as a bunch of not so congenial messages ("What the fuck is
Colma?") and frankly I can't handle the harassment.
doing keys for Super Avilyn, I thought that maybe I could do
"stuff" on my own. But I always saw myself as some musical
impostor. Someone who can only "pretend" to make music.
So, one day, I thought, "Hey, what if I pretended to make
music? Maybe people would pretend to listen!" So, I made
this pretend album that you can pretend to download, finally.
issues, and body rashes. It's my "disease" song. So, it's not as romantic as
alcoholism, but at least it manages to be somewhat catchy.
2. FORTUNE COOKIE
Came up with this while eating Chinese food with an ex in a South Philly buffet
3. EFREN JOHN
I think the song speaks for itself. I was so proud that none of the facts were changed.
4. IN TEN YEARS
My own personal geek anthem.
5. LET'S GET MARRIED
I actually wrote this years ago, but never sang or played it. I wrote it after a big fight
with an ex I'd been with for five years. The darkly poetic part of all this is making him
sing it after we made up.
6. DON'T DARE SET THE ALARM
I always loved how some of the danciest eighties songs were all really sad.
7. EVERYTHING IS POP
I came up with this song while working retail on South Street, where all of the hipsters
condemned each other for their musical tastes. All of my friends were in bands, and I
had one friend who unabashedly lauded Britney Spears' Toxic. I agreed that it was a
well put together piece of pop. Suddenly, everyone at work jumped down our throats
for playing it. "It's just a stupid dance song..." which led to pretentious conversations
about IDM versus everything else...
8. STAR
I wrote this for a dear friend only to find out that she didn't fly away, but in fact drove...
9. DISCLAIMER NOTHING
Self-deprication, excessive harmonies, melodic dissonance, a little bit of beat
boxing...yeah, it's a serenade...
(right click on the song title to download to your computer.)
THEY MIGHT BE COVERS:
1. A SELF CALLED NOWHERE
One of my favorite They Might Be Giants songs from a truly
underappreciated album (John Henry). I decided to do a cover
after not having listened to it for years. This was a test to see
how well I remembered the song.
2. BOAT OF CAR
After having done A Self Called Nowhere, I thought, "Oh, hell, I'll
cover the lot..."
3. ROBOT PARADE
And the lot ending with Robot Parade, which actually closes off
with a line from another TMBG song.
OTHER SONGS:
4. NANANG
I sang this with my mother when she came to visit Philadelphia.
It's an Ilocano "lullabye" (I won't explain the quotation marks...)
that was one of many songs people in my family sang as I grew
up.
5. HEARD
This song is dedicated to Ted Crimy, who wrote the music for
this. He also played guitar for it. This is actually a song I
recorded with Taraval.
