To further add to the deluge of Michael Jackson commentary and tributes out there in the past few days, here is a cover of “Man In The Mirror” that I recorded in an afternoon over a year ago. It was recorded just for fun, because at the time I listening to that song a lot. I had to get it out of my system. It’s a great song!
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Two shows coming up! July 2 at the Twilight and an acoustic set at August 16 at the Hawthorne Theater Lounge. I might have another coming up soon as well. Please come to all of them. You probably haven’t seen me play since last year, because I haven’t played since last year (except for that last-minute Fantasia 26 show).
Modernity Leave is fairly close to being done (29 songs!), but I’m not sure what I want to do with it. My opinion of it changes every day. It’s a heart breaker. Just like Mike Campbell.
I have also been working on two new Public Domain Rainbow songs. One is “Nuke Song II,” which was originally written and recorded for Modernity Leave. I decided it was too good to merely languish in lo-fi land, so I started recording it properly for PDR. It features a LinnDrum and gated reverb. You do the math.
I’m also working on a song for Alyssa to sing the lead vocals on. The song came from a dream I had and I didn’t want to disobey my subconscious, so I wrote it for real the next day. It’s called “Breathe In The Air,” which is a boring title and sounds like a Bette Midler song, but that’s what it was called in my dream, so I’m keeping it. Alyssa also sang it in my dream, which is why I’ve been bugging her to learn it for the past couple weeks. She actually doesn’t even like it that much. She says it’s boring and not a very good song. But she’s wrong you know! When y’all hear the finished version, y’all will be blazed.
I’ve also been working on finishing up the Tiger House album, Geodyssey. I’m very proud of how it turned out. It’s a great little indie pop/rock truffle. You’ll been hearing more of it very soon.
Also, this website is still very much under construction. It’s a big mess right now. But that will change pretty soon. The buffet is still being prepped.
As you can see (unless you’re reading this in the future or the past), a new website design is underway. My super super nice girlfriend Alyssa has taken up the task of completely redoing the Alex Arrowsmith HQ from the ground up, this time with Wordpress. So it should have a more bloggy feel to it, which should also hopefully make me post updates more often (hopefully).
Check back soon for a fully awesome alexarrowsmith.com!
Public Domain Rainbow update: I haven’t been recording much PDR stuff lately because 1) I’ve been busy with the Tiger House album and 2) I’ve been recording a new four-track album! It’s tentatively called Modernity Leave. I can’t gaurantee that it will ever actually come out. It’s going to be pretty nuts. I will decide when it’s done if it’s any good at all. Some days I love what I’ve recorded so far and some days I hate it. I’ll try to decide on a day that I love it. It’s definitely more Meat Grinder-esque, but with some pop songs thrown in to keep things grounded. But that’s what I’ve been up to, recording-wise.
Upcoming shows: I have none at the moment! I haven’t played since New Year’s Eve! If you can provide me with a show, then I’ll give you bag of chips.
I also updated my licensing page with a link to license my music at Pump Audio. If you’re John Stamos looking for a theme to your new hit show that will be canceled after six episodes, please check out that link.
I’ll try to be more frequent with the updates here. Once a month is kind of weak, isn’t it?
I just uploaded six new mind-moisturizing songs from my new album Public Domain Rainbow to my Myspace profile. The album isn’t coming out quite yet, but I thought I’d put a little “sneak peek” out there so you can see if you REALLY want to continue living without Alex Arrowsmith in your life or not. Maybe the songs will even make you refer to yourself in the third person. Like me. However, if they make you refer to yourself in the second person then you might need to seek holistic medical treatment.
Here’s a rundown of the songs:
Sexual Taxi — A Prince/Beck-esque romp through the wrong (or most awesome?) part of town.
A Different Story — Slightly proggy, late-80s/early-90s R.E.M. pop complete with sped-up vocals that only Ween would approve of.
Bad Vibrations — Multi-movement power pop, somewhat reminiscent of songs like “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” “Paranoid Android” and–oops!–”Good Vibrations.”
Saving Up The World — Shiny, hipster-friendly pop complete with ironic synth.
Painted Over — Bouncy, Beatlely, not for rooftops.
My Minimum — Straight-forward power pop that mentions clam chowder.
Like I said, I don’t know when Public Domain Rainbow is coming out, but hopefully sometime later this year. I gotta get my funds together and whatnot. Or find a filthy rich oil tycoon who will release it for me. Those oil men sure know good music when they hear it, believe you me.
Post a comment on my Myspace or something while you’re at it! Let me know that my reality is not a trauma-induced illusion!
Last night, Alyssa’s Dad (Pumaman, genius creator of the Pumaboard pedalboard) gave me an unclaimed Pumaboard he had around. It’s slightly bigger than the one I’ve been using, and now I can incorporate a flanger pedal that I will probably never use (but doesn’t it look cool on there??) as well as many other future pedals. And everything is much roomier and cleaner in general. It looks lovely doesn’t it? Thanks Pumaman! </guitargeek>
Also, in Tiger House news, KINK will be playing our single “Air Traffic” tomorrow night at 9:15 pm on their Local Music Spotlight. Listen to it then if you’re one of the 2 people in the world who hasn’t heard it yet! We’re also playing at Plan B on Valentine’s Day. 21+ and stuff.
If you could imagine one artist that took the best of the '60s, '70s, late '80s and early '90s to create quirky, edgy pop sounds, you'd find yourself listening to Alex Arrowsmith.
