Category: Layers of Meta

  • Can the drummer get some?

    Can the drummer get some?

    New job and all, excuses excuses, still playing catch-up, so anyhow back in April I was back at Megasonic with product David Gans and engineer/co-producer Jeremy Goody with magnificent drummer John Hanes (who already added impeccable parts to “Saint Lucifer” and “Dirty Ol’ Sunshine”) in the house again, this this time to add a little…

  • Let’s pour one out

    Let’s pour one out

    What a long, strange year it’s been, recording one song a month for twelve months running for my record, Layers of Meta. We started with a song I had just started writing, “The Long Haired Kings,” last February. That day in the studio was just my producer and friend, David Gans; our engineer and co-producer,…

  • Swim-two-birds logo ideas

    Swim-two-birds logo ideas

    As part of my songwriting trip I established a music publishing company for publishing my songs and managing that side of their rights (I also signed up with BMI for the songwriter side of the equation, and included my alias, Crispy Bacon). The company is called At Swim-Two-Birds Music in full but generally I just…

  • You’ll know when

    You’ll know when

    This whole album project evolved somewhat naturally from my ongoing songwriting efforts. As far as I can tell, writing songs is the best writing medium for me. I’ve written short stories, novels, poetry, and plays, and in each case I feel that I was able to carve out something worthwhile from time to time, but…

  • Dirty ol’ tune

    Dirty ol’ tune

    In that same spirit of catching my breath toward the end of the year I find I never did share any of the rough mixes of the third song we recorded this year, which must have been back in April. This one benefited a lot from having John Hanes on drums, and I feel he…

  • Nobody called it that

    Nobody called it that

    At least in my day, nobody called our neighborhood on the upper east side “Carnegie Hill,” although that’s what they call it today and maybe some folks, like realtors, even called it that back then. A bunch of things converged in 2020. I was getting a bit more intentional about songwriting. I read the wonderful…

  • Never been to Narnia

    Never been to Narnia

    One sign of how busy I’ve been lately is it’s taken me weeks to share the latest rough mix from my “Pleasant Valley sessions,” something called “Finn’s Song” informally and “Stand Up, Mixer!” inexplicably:

  • Seeing the hindsights

    Seeing the hindsights

    Got back to Megasonic Sound for my monthly recording session last weekend and laid down the basic tracks for a fifth song for my album, “Memory Lane,” with Bill Cassel on bass; myself on vocals, electric ukulele, and acoustic ukulele; David Gans producing and Jeremy Goody engineering.

  • …and into the studio we go

    …and into the studio we go

    Got a rough demo in the can already!

  • Giving Zoo Wolves Lessons in Music (again)

    “Three notes in a scale…”

  • Giving Zoo Wolves Lessons in Music (dance mix demo)

    For odd reasons. was tuned to about A 415 when I recorded this. This tune was inspired by a New York Times article from the 1910s:

  • Memory Lane (demo)

    Out on a jaunt Seeing the hindsights

  • Memory Lane

    Here is the first song in a five-song mini-concert recorded last month and initially posted on ye old booke of faces. This one has lyrics by Peter K. Hirsch: Next up, a bit of early 20th century science history, “Giving Zoo Wolves Lessons in Music.”

  • Giving Zoo Wolves Lessons in Music

    A scientist’s dream… Three notes in a scale

  • Standup, Mixer!

    Don’t forget that out here Someone loves you every day

  • Carnegie Hill

    Shoestring fries at Jackson Hole PLJ playing Billy Joel

  • Chanson

    Yes, I drink champagne Because I never feel real pain

  • Down to the Mountain (debut)

    I don’t need majestic splendor.

  • Dirty Ol’ Sunshine (debut)

    Here is my first complete take of a new song I’m really into:

  • Carnegie Hill

    I’ve written a new song and have been learning how to play it. This is the first demo version I’ve felt comfortable enough to share more widely:

  • Bird Song (instrumental)

    On my electric solid body uke with a pocket amp and a bit of delay, for the last day of Jerry Week. Also posted at the big book of faces and audio-only on shmow-kwow with a kind of permanent public link for the video up on bop rocks.