So I read Dusty's poem and it sounded like a monologue to me. So I strummed a few chords and wrote a little musical scenelet using her words.

It reminds me of a moment in a show where a character is trying to talk to a friend or a therapist about being unhappy with him/herself and the therapist is like "well what don't you like about yourself" and the character is like oh jesus what DON'T I like about myself and of course it's a song because it's a musical in my head. duh.

 Its kind of an idea of what I want to do with the song but it's just a little harmony on the chorus. I also want to duet the second verse and maybe add some cute little hand claps to the chorus. But alas, my microphone situation still sucks so I'll probably wait until I fix that to continue. I really just adore this song.

This works better when you actually upload your tracks. Mhm, yes it certainly does.

I got the best deal out of anyone in the collab. I started out thinking that I had one Secret Valentine and halfway through- SHABAM! I got two! So this is a song for Amy and to the little record she's got growing inside her.

I wish, I wish on a flying fish that I knew how to mix a song correctly, but I don't. So I'm sorry for any volume issues (it sounds much better on headphones, or anything that isn't a tinny laptop speaker, really). I also wish I didn't have the flu so I could belt this for you from the depths of my chest, but I do. Flaws aside, I hope you know that this is from the heart and for both of you. Happy Valentines Day, Amy!

Lyrics:

I don't know much about the world and that's because I'm young enough to know what I don't know.

If I had sound advice to give (Which I really don't) I'l tell you: Life's not a game that we play, or a plan, it's the stories that don't let go.

So just get born and just grow up

Nothing is perfect in the world except LOVE and you'll know what that means soon enough.

So here's to mistakes you'll undoubtedly make and the songs that you'll sing and the chances you'll take and the years that will stack up and make you who you are.

And you are gonna be BEAUTIFUL! My god, you are gonna be beautiful!

(and nothing like the sun, there are plenty of them but there's only one of you.)

Even when you fall down, you have parents. They'll always be there and be proud of you.

The planet is a hot mess now but it gave birth to human love for you.

Just get born and just grow up.

Nothing is perfect in this world except LOVE and you'll know what that means soon enough.

So here's to beliefs you'll believe to a fault and the tears that you'll cry 'til you're raw with the salt of the earth, to your heart and the music it records...

I recorded a very rough cut of my song "The Buzz" today...blah I still don't know how to mix blah I don't really care it makes me happy to sing songs into a crazy little box and put all the different parts together. Anyone who wants to cover/add harmony/drums/dub..let me know and I can send you the expanded audactiy file...or just the vocals or whatever you like. And Cam, I'm referencing your portrait because I test-drove this one on you and amped up the breakdown with you in mind, mon petit blondie.

----------------

And I’ve been here nineteen years, three months, seventeen days and an hour or so; I still don’t know my right from left and I forget things.

But when I’m crowded and lost and young and the notes bleed together like salt on my tongue I choke, I give up hope, and I find you.
You fold me up like a cardboard box- you turn the key and you check the locks and we play and write and we sing and holler (the only boy father will trust with his daughter_- I’m repaired again, safe on your side of the Hudson.

You tell me "everything you write is wrong," but then you raise your voice and you sing along. You said to "write what I know" so I wrote this song.
They’re saying “we think you’re in love with him," but I’m not in love and I’ve never been and least of all with you. I’ve seen what you’ve grown into.

And I am back on the streets of my island. I think of this new mess that I’m in and I resist the urge to call because you’re always running...
And I think of the other boys- what do I do? They’re never you (but sometimes they have your eyes) and I haven’t heard from you in months when like magic or fate you’re a buzz in my box!
And I put you together far worse to dissever like glue. That’s my only way of loving you.

...he raised his voice and he sang along and our lips moved together with words that I wrote....

They’re saying “we think you’re in love with him" and I’m starting to think they’re right.

"Everything you write is wrong," but then you raise your voice and you sing along. You said to write what I know so I wrote this song.
They’re saying “we think you’re in love with him," but I’m not in love and I’ve never been but I can change that....

This is a cover of Day_Glo's glorious ditty. I just wanted to sing it and add a little...salt.

You go, Day Glo! Four for you, Day Glo!

Like everything I make, it's better with headphones.

Even my text records are better with headphones.

Also don't mind the end. I played for too long and just kind of derped out chords.

Today is International Women's Day! I haven't been REcording much lately, but this is a special little video, recorded in the hot 30 minutes I had between classes, for all the ladies here on hitRECord and everywhere else. It's a rough cut of a song I wrote a few weeks ago and have been meaning to get out there- it seemed timely to post it today of all days so here you go: My body is an empire. And so is yours.

Lyrics:

I didn't start out pretty like my sister and didn't think that I would ever be.
I didn't know a face could cry so much. I didn't know I'd been had!

I didn't start out starving for attention, I learned that lesson from the magazines but it all was a matter of time before I grew up, got born, and got mine

So here's what you need to know about me these days, here's what you need to know about me:

My body is an EMPIRE ruled by a QUEEN, she rules EVERYTHING and she doesn't need a KING!

I am the fake bitch, I am the whore. You say I'm all of these but I am more.
She would say dancer, the singer, the writer but he gets to choose all the words that describe her.

My feet are aching from the high heels, honey.
And when you they call at me: NOT complementary
I'm not a toy for you, I'm not for staring
I ask for nothing with what I am wearing...

So here's something you can sing today, my sisters, something you can sing today:

My body is an EMPIRE ruled by a QUEEN, she rules EVERYTHING and she doesn't need a KING!

----------

The buzzing in the beginning is my infamous radiator. It kills my recordings and generally sounds like a bunch of babies on crystal meth having a high-speed rattle contest under my roommate's bed. Dorms, yo.

This is one of my favorite Metaphorest pieces and I've been meaning to record a musical version of it. I used my laptop mic, none of my recording stuff so it's very rough- I just wanted to get the piece out there and see if there was any interest in making this BIGGER AND BETTER because we here at hitrecord love metaphorest and love music and love making things bigger and better (or smaller and more poignant? both? some awesome combination of the two.)

So I wrote some lyrics for chigwinkle's Time Machine Song but, as usual, it's difficult to see how they fit with the music so I recorded myself singing the verses over a badly spliced loop of chig's uke track :)

wanted to record a little old movie-style harmony for alpal's beautiful lullaby! IF anyone wants the raw vocals, ask in a remark. I will warn you that my mic picked up the ukulele from my headphones so they're not all that raw. They're a little cooked, actually. I don't know if that euphemism holds in that situation.

This is a song I wrote when wirrow first put out the creation myth collab, my own musical myth about the world coming around via the stories of the first of our kind.

I resourced a new hevn because the idea of stories making reality is a prevalent theme in both- as well as the idea that the truth of creation, the real-in-your-mind

Meh, not terribly relevant. But as far as the song goes...I was trying to make it sound like an educational tune, like something that would play in the background of those science videos I had to watch in middle school where everything had a face. A sing-along, if you will. And do sing along!

I just wrote this song on my grandpa's old guitar. I didn't bother setting up my recording stuff so it's done with my laptop mic and as such gets scartchy/staticy in some places but I'm putting it up anyway because I felt this performance down into my marrow and I...dunno. Wanted to preserve it, share it. Whatever.

I was directly inspired by the idea of writing a story around a song that already exists- in this case Lizzienrose's "The Garden." I don't like the idea of burying my things in the garden. You bury things that are dead and only a very small proportion of things-you-can-potentially-bury end up growing back out of the ground. You can bury a lot of things in a garden. You can bury a body, a brick, a shoebox, a love, your gold. As long as you don't expect to see it again anytime soon.

La letra:

You were a fallen angel and I was your saving grace. But even our heaven had a rank and file and I took second place.

Did I tell you I’m scared of mirrors? Because I don’t like what you see. I’m looking at pictures that you took behind my back and I can’t help blaming me…

So will you write me down the answer dear because I don’t know? Am I the dirty water to her melted snow? And oh you left me blue but it was never me, it was always you.

I left the house on Tuesday. Said I’d be to the store and back. I buried my things in the garden so I wouldn’t have to pack.

I’m in my mama’s bedroom now. The front of her shirt is wet. There’s salt in the air and we look so alike I can’t tell who’s more upset.

All I can drink is coffee and all I can eat is bread. I can’t blame my heart because I know I  owe her for running my veins with red….

A second version of the song I recorded last night. This time with my mic and stuff. I kind of wanted it to sound like a girl singing all alone on a church or a music hall just screaming at this man (or woman) who dun her wrong.

There are some funny creaking noises and it took me a good hour to figure out that it's my very old desk chair.  It actually kind of sounds like I've got gas but I can't be bugged to fix it so...you know. It's the chair.

I have around a fifth of the song I wanted to write to show my appreciation for the hitRECord community. With my HR birthday coming in November, I wanted to create a project that showed a) what hitrecord is to the world and b) what it means to me and all the other artists on this website. The only instructions I give for this project are contained within the song so give it a listen!

The first cut of "Missing," the song I wrote a few weeks ago.

I actually wrote this in January after the first time I read tommacarte's "The Same." I know he provided chords but I couldn't get this folksy tune out of my head and it was C G Am F for me...again. 

I love the idea of doing a cover collab! This one of my favorite hitrecord songs and I wanted to give it a kind of folksy, singer-songwriter treatment. I also transcribed the lyrics by ear, not realizing that sparrow did them in the original record so I got a few of them wrong. Oopsie. 

I've had this phrase stuck in my head for a long time and I wanted to write a whole song with it but for the life of me I couldn't. So I looped myself...and sang it....and made a thing. A thing thing. I tried to keep it short- let's collaborate on this! Harmonize, play marimba, accompany me on the ten pound plastic pickle tub wearing nothing but bubble wrap!

It's a Christmas Song! Kind of...Thanks to Kat and Shugs for the music, and Reverie for the first verse :) 

La Letra:

[Outside there is a blizzard, the nighttime's droning on

The wind will soon be blowing in an icy, chilly dawn

There's no cold to be felt, although, despite the frozen storm…

Because I’m sitting with you. And you keep me warm.] - Reverie's bit

Been waiting for your plane to come, been waiting half a year

It didn’t feel like Christmas until you came home my dear…

So I'm calling in a snow day- I’m not leaving this hotel

You’re my favorite part of winter, you remind me of the bells.

So let’s drink from the bottle and we’ll whine about our schools

We’ll eat a billion Red Hots and pretend we’re really cool

We’ll fog up all the windows drawing portraits on the glass

And sleeping’s not an option til the bells strike up for Christmas mass...

And I think you know I love you even though it goes unsaid

I see you once a year but you are always in my head

And I’m too scared to ask if you’re in love with me as well

So I treasure every moment up until we hear the bells…

Do re mi fa..so I don’t know

Just how I always end up singing this solo.

I try to set it up to make it easy to duet

...but nothing’s happened yet.

'cause A-E-G-C, it doesn’t spell it out like L-O-V-E

But even if I say it clearly music isn’t nearly

Enough to make you see me like I thought it would be

Do re mi fa-so in love with everyone but me-re do

I'm sick of all these hopeless cases

Same old loves in New York places- so

I-I-I would like to turn it on itself and sing it:

Do ti la sol fa- but oh no!

They say that everyone is music at their heart

We all know the same notes but we're all singing different parts

And when our melodies come harmonies we call it love, or art?

…Don’t get me started on-

Do re mi fa- so in love with everyone but me-re do

Sick of all these hopeless cases

Same old loves in New York places- so

I would like to turn it on itself and sing it:

Do ti la- so far you don’t know

So I hate to be the one to break the news

But no one’s gonna love you like I do

And I’m feeling like Bogey saying “Here’s to you, kid”

(I tried to act it out but I just looked stupid)

And maybe singing it will make you realize

You and I are meant to harmonize :)

Do re mi fa- so in love with everyone but me -re do

I'm sick of all these hopeless cases

same old loves in New York places so

I would like to turn it on itself and sing it:

Do ti la sol fa- but oh no!

Of course I have an idea for a song right after I pack all of my recording equipment. Maybe someday I'll record it properly but for now, it's just me, my laptop microphone, and a ukulele. Feel free to sing along? Chords C G Am F, as usual. 

I heard RP's track "Alone Is All I Know" when I woke up this morning and skipped breakfast to record this over it real quick. I ws at a loss for lyrics so I searched the word "lonely" on the site and turned up "Into Midnight" by smweed and even though they're meant to be lyrics to another song I thought they fit perfectly. REmix!

I've been listening to a lot of Lovedrug, a lot of ghost rock and the track sounded to me like a choir of pissed off dead people rocking out in the netherworld. To suit that image, the chorus is super dissonant and could use LOADS more voices. Hint. Stems are a particular weakness of mine, but I'll try to get them up soon. 

REvised Lyrics from smweed's "Into Midnight":

I don't know where I've come from, but I know where I've been

And I won't ask for redemption but I know that I have sinned

And I am going into midnight to the end of all things.  

(It's all I know, you know I'm going in alone) 

I won't ask you for comfort, I won't ask you for your love

I have stolen all your mercy, baby, I'm the hawk to your dove

And I am going into midnight, from below to above!

(It's all I know, you know I'm going in alone)

I'm a stranger in the darkness, I'm alone among my friends

(I'm a stranger in the darkness)

I can see the road is open but I can't see where it ends

(I can see the road is open)

And I haven't tasted freedom but I've broken all my strings

(And I haven't tasted freedom)

I am going into midnight to the end of all the things

(it's all I know, you know I'm going in alone, all I know)  

I heard eldein's beautiful piece "Spring" and couldn't help but sing along to it. Welcome to hitRECord eldein! This is what we do here. 

Lyrics:

Spin like circles, yellows and purples

Repetitions slower than we can perceive

Falling past stars and Mercury and Mars

It's a long way to the bottom of the sea.

Spring and Summer

Fall, like the others.

Winter with a cold and bitter frost.

I just get lost...

Circulating cells

Waking, I can't even tell if the road is going to take me left or right...

Neither!

Beating like a heart

All for one of many parts

I, for one, can feel it all

Inside me. 

Sometimes you come across two records that just make sense in your head. When I heard the pulsing electro-beat of christopher.harn's "Flights" and read joel the gentleman's "context clues on a chalkboard" I immediately heard the words in a melody. Both of these records are great you guys. Thank you SO much for making these. 

If anybody wants to mix this better, let me know and I'll put stems up. There's a "please" somewhere in there on my part. 

Lyrics adapted from joel the gentleman’s “context clues on a chalkboard,” only the line in [brackets] is original-ish, and even those are inspired joel the gentleman’s “odd, how strange.”

Two handed, grace demanded

I sit up straight while on this planet

And we’re all colors sitting quietly; we’re all crammed inside a cabinet

Waiting patiently as patience, as if our path already planned it

Well, I can’t stand this plain outlandish point of view (in pews with traffic)

Looking back and moving backwards

Dull edged hatchets that never quite hacked it

‘till we feel it, ‘til we feel it, ‘til we can admit that we’re all realists

‘till we feel it, ‘til we feel it, ‘til we can admit we know what real is

Oh, tree of life, I think I might go blind inside and lose my sight.

Just to prove that I’d be fine.

But we’re all mice we follow light so bright we never notice height, we fall…

Just to prove we’ll be all right.

That seems fair, right?

Good thing I brought my A.C. because things are getting heated

In the backseat with bruises matching the ones we got when we were defeated

[And bad things come to those who burn their bridges and build no boats

So I hope you don’t, we can float…]

Sex and violence don’t mix, but our populous of pop culture is too quick to tell us that we need it

While preaching we don’t need shit, oh how convenient

I believe it’s way past time we all relieved this

All we gotta do is feel it…til we can admit that we’re all realists

‘till we feel it, ‘til we feel it, ‘til we can admit that we’re all realists

‘till we feel it, ‘til we feel it, ‘til we can admit we know what real is

(oh, tree of life, I think I might go blind inside and lose my sight

Just to prove that I’d be fine…)

Oh, Ryan Patrick. How I dig thy tunes. I unleashed my inner stoner beach rocker for this.

 I actually recorded it before I heard the version with the original vocals so uh...you know. REinterpretation, REmix and all that.