Back to another segment of my band, “The Sound of Monday”, in the rehearsal room circa 1997, with a song I’d written about resentments that had built up in one relationship or another…little had I realized at the time that the resentments I had been feeling were making me the dead weight…at the time, I thought that those I was writing about were the dead weight in the relationship…nothing like a little time and growth to set it all straight.
Three years or so later, the song would undergo a re-arrangement, when the track was produced by longtime They Might Be Giants bass player and friend, Danny Weinkauf–that version is as yet still unreleased. However, here for the first time was the arrangement in its original state …enjoy!
Comments Off on “Dead Weight” by The Sound of Monday (Rehearsal, Circa 1997)
In 2009, I re-connected with an old good friend who I hadn’t spoken with since we were kids at sleepaway camp, so, there was lots of history to cover while catching up. Curiously, (to me, at least), she proclaimed that she was co-dependent in her romantic relationships; it struck me that she’d said it with the certainty of someone who was a devotee of a religion, and I secretly found that idea humorous. After we concluded our four plus hour telephone conversation, (yes, we spoke for that long…maybe longer), I picked up my guitar and one-after-the-other found the opening riff and title/concept/opening line of the song…the rest just poured out of me…it’s one of my personal favorites for many reasons, among them, the story above, the simplicity with which it arrived, but also that I can truly relate to the emotional turbulence therein. Furthermore, I am proud of the lyrics, and balance of humor and tender honesty. Lastly, I like the way the track and video came out, thanks to Len Monachello (audio) and Sandhya Dahari (video)…enjoy!
Be my co-dependent Valentine I’ve all ready built a shrine to feeling unfulfilled I swallow a heart-shaped bitter pill Will ya be my co-dependent Valentine?
I need you so co-dependently Without you here There’s no me to speak of anywhere The fun in dysfunction disappears With our splendid co-dependent love affair
Hey! I watch it drift away from a place where I can handle it Wait! Enable me a little more Our therapist says to slip my check under her door…
God bless this livin’, breathin’, lovin’ mess That we created with success I guess we have to climb The hopelessly copeless go sublime I’m your moping co-dependent Valentine
Here is another glimpse into the madcap, fun rehearsal sessions from 1997 for my band The Sound of Monday, performing a song I wrote some years before about living in a fantasy world of my own design…eventually, when performed live and on subsequent recordings, the bridge was eliminated entirely…it’s nice to hear bass player Greg Jones’ signature flowery vocals on it, mixed with my sometimes gravelly-or-otherwise-yelping bellows…a time-piece for sure…enjoy!
Comments Off on Livin’ In My Heart & Head (1997 Rehearsal)
I wrote this in 1994 off of an idea that came to me while jamming around an E chord during a rehearsal with my then-bandmate Bergy in our band/duo, “Splat!”. It remained a staple of all of my later lineups of The Sound of Monday because it was simply so much fun to play. Particularly proud moments include the lyrics, “Pick out a pickaxe that suitable to you and attach it to the knapsack in your head”, and use of the word “Biorhythm”, which was this weird 1970’s vending machine that would give your fortune-of-sorts, which I always got a dollar from my parents for whenever we’d visit the Ground Round restaurant on Rt. 10 when I was a kid. Anyway…enjoy!
I wrote “Plastic Explosives” in the mid-to-late 1990s about how poorly I’d managed my personal finances–the plastic was a reference to my then flagrant credit card use. This recording is from a band rehearsal of our then-current setlist, circa 1997 or so…enjoy!
