That is the sound of kaiju walking. Muaha ha ha ha ha ha ha! 😀

I like this bridge I just recorded, quite a lot. This thing is really coming together.

Lead vocals next.

The first 20 seconds of “Kaiju Meat,” now posted to Tumblr. That gets you the intro and the first half of the first verse (sans vocals).

There is a lot of bass in this thing and a lot going on in percussion; headphones recommended.

So far – so far – in fact, it’s mostly percussion (two stock beats that I mutated, a rock beat loop, and one entirely new studio drum track I recorded this afternoon), plus faux-electric distorted-and-overdriven irish bouzouki. It sounds nice and thumpy and trashy. I’m kind of going for mecha / jeager / kaiju dance/fight music here, because canon reasons. Also because it’s the Dance Dance Revolution Demonstration Team doing this. But that part’s just my headcanon, anyway. 😀

If you want to get vocals in, now you have your tempo, and NOW IS THE TIME! Use your phone, use your laptop, whatever, just tell me how you want credited and keep the background noise down. See the Jeagercon post for details.

I wrote a song for this weekend’s JaegerCon and it will be online. It won’t be the most polished recording ever but it’ll be there.

YOU GUYS WANNA BE IN IT?

Send me a recording of YOU singing KAI JU MEAT on the note of F. Or, if you can’t do an F, shout them – but back off from your microphone so you aren’t distorted to hell and back. Make sure the words are recognisable and give me some separation between the syllables so I can edit them together more easily in the right timing.

The shtick is that the Cascadian Mecha Militia’s Dance Dance Revolution Demonstration team stepped in after the Seattle Jaeger went down. Yes, this is an AU/crossover cracksong.

Want some lyics?

Kaiju Meat
2013 Crime and the Forces of Evil

something in the ocean has a bit of an attitude
kickin’ in the bottom like it’s going to burst
chompin’ all the sharkies, eatin’ all our salmon
steppin’ on the coral but it’s gonna get worse

rippin’ over bridges, tearing down towns
monorail in ribbons, space needle down
jaeger fallen over, pilots in tears
mecha to the rescue, now we’re all here for

kaiju meat
better than bacon
kaiju meat
tasty with fries
kaiju meat
pandimensional poutine
kaiju meat
phosphoresent surprise

[break and turnaround]

barbecue pit boilin’ under the ocean
carbonated soda shouldn’t turn out so blue
colour’s going off ’cause of all of that fission
bubblegum cider made expressly for you

pop it in the engine, turbo engage
five hundred fifty octane, mecha rampage
jaeger fallen over, kaiju went chomp
dancin’ to the rescue, see how we stomp for

kaiju meat
nothin’ like chicken
kaiju meat
it’s cholesterol-free
kaiju meat
pandimensional protein
kaiju meat
hot pockets of the sea

[bridge] [gets knocked over] [because that’s what bridges do]

kaiju meat
the champion’s breakfast
kaiju meat
good for ev-er-y mood
kaiju meat
pandimensional repast
kaiju meat
it’s an all-the-time food!

AAARHM NOM NOM A NARM
AAARHAM A NOM A NOM A NOM
AAARHM NOM NOM A NARM
AAARHAM A NOM NOM NOM
AAARHM NOM NOM A NARM
AAARHAM A NOM A NOM A NOM
AAARHM NOM NOM A NARM
AAARHAM A NOM NOM NOM
AAARHAM A NOM NOM NOM
AAARHAM A NOM NOM NOM
AAARHAM A NOM A NOM A NOM A
[godzilla belch noise here]
STOMP

I WILL USE EVERY SUBMISSION IF I CAN^*. You will be credited (tell me how but keep it clean) and this will of course be a free download/creative commons all that stuff.

Your laptop mic will be fine, but use better if you got it. If you want to robot-voice it or mangle it or something? Go to town, as long as it’s recognisable. And just get it to me by END OF WEDNESDAY (7 August 2013). It needs to be around here by Thursday so I can throw it all together.

*: Legal status: Any recordings submitted MUST be under Creative Commmons 3.0/Attribution license. If that’s not okay, DO NOT SEND IT IN. In return: you get credit, this recording will be under Creative Commons/Attribution/Noncommercial/ShareAlike license, and will ALWAYS be a free download which can be shared by anybody with anyone for any reason.

I’M GONNA DO THE THING. I wrote a song for this weekend’s JaegerCon and there will be a recording. Maybe not the most polished recording ever but it’ll be there.

YOU GUYS WANNA BE IN IT?

You can seriously. Send me a recording of YOU singing KAI JU MEAT on the note of F. Or, if you can’t do an F, shout them – but back off from your microphone so you aren’t distorted to hell and back. Make sure the words are recognisable and give me some separation between the syllables so I can edit them together more easily in the right timing.

I WILL USE EVERY ONE OF THESE I AM SENT IF I CAN^*. YOU WILL BE CREDITED (tell me how but keep it clean) AND THIS WILL BE A FREE DOWNLOAD.

Your laptop mic will do, but use better if you got it. If you want to robot-voice it or mangle it or something? Go to town, as long as it’s recognisable. And just get it to me by WEDNESDAY MIDNIGHT (7 August 2013).

This is one of the choruses; I’ll post the whole song’s lyrics when I talk about this again tomorrow.

cF
Kaiju meat!
            Eb4
Better than Bacon
cF
Kaiju meat!
           power Bb
Tasty with fries!
cF
Kaiju meat!
               power D
Pandimensional poutine
cF
Kaiju meat!
              Ab
Phosphoresent surprise

I seem to have composed this in Eb. Oh dear. Fortunately if you capo one on a stringed instrument suddenly it’s okay. XD

*: Legal status: Any recordings submitted MUST be under Creative Commmons 3.0/Attribution license. If that’s not okay, DO NOT SEND IT IN. In return: you get credit, this recording will be under Creative Commons/Attribution/Noncommercial/ShareAlike license, and will ALWAYS be a free download which can be shared by anybody with anyone for any reason.

There may be a song involving Pacific Rim and the Cascadian Mecha Militia’s Dance Dance Revolution Demonstration Team. It may be called “Kaiju Meat.” This may be a thing which may be happening.

I’m pretty sure I got the “stupid” part nailed

So there’s a song by Vixy & Tony called “Thirteen.” It’s on their Bandcamp page here, and there’s cellphone video of a live performance here, at nwcMUSIC 2012.

And I realised a while ago that this is the same number as canonical Doctors – not now, but possible. 12 regenerations, 13 doctors Who. But nothing ever really came of that, until this popped out of my head. And I want to get it posted before we know anything about a 12th doctor, because parts of this kind of play off not having one, and rumours are floating about, so now is the goddamn time, apparently. XD

Thirteen
(Music Vixy & Tony 2008, Lyrics me, um, a couple of weeks ago. March 2013. Creative Commons 3.0/noncommercial use-derivative works allowed-attribute.)

Well I went for a walk on a rocky beach with a storm-tossed sea and a sky of grey
Saw a big blue box with a funny man, he called, “come with me, child, and fly away”
Said “count by the minutes and count by the hours, we’ll see the future that you never knew”
“But the path’s all covered with the blood of strangers, Raggedy Man there’s too many of you”

One and one and one and two and three
Timelord, won’t you take pity on me
Original show only counted to Seven, so
tell me what do you mean?
Thirteen / Thirteen / Thirteen / Thirteen

Timelord tell me all your stories, timelord tell me I can play
I never believed you could come up empty, I never knew nothing never went your way
Reborn twelve times ’round this console, set back up until they shut you down
Nemeses come in gold and silver, but someday the Valeyard’s gonna steal your crown

One and one and one and two and three
Timelord, don’t you take pity on me
Original show never counted on Seven
Tell me what could you mean?
Thirteen / Thirteen / Thirteen / Thirteen

Timelord tell me where you goin’ / Timelord tell me where you been?
Eight went and died on the stroke of midnight, Nine was the soldier who did him in
Ten went too far in a TARDIS, twelve’s still the man who can never sin
But thirteen’s a wrap and thirteen’s a final and thirteen’s the doctor who can never win

One and one and one and two and three
Timelord, won’t you get clever for me?
Original show only made it to Seven, so
what’ll be your last scene?
Thirteen / Thirteen / Thirteen / Thirteen

Sometimes I take traditional songs and modify them or just outright write new versions set in my Republic of Cascadia universe, where Cascadia gained independence in 1973, and a bunch of other things are different too. Despite the way things fell apart in that time in that world, it’s not dystopian – people picked things up and put them back together in new ways, like mostly, people do.

The traditional “High Barbaree” is about an encounter with a pirate ship where the pirates lose, and if you know us, you know that’s not how we roll. I was stuck on this song for a long time, despite having come up with a great zouk riff for it – until a couple of weeks ago, when I finally realised that in this version, High Barbaree isn’t the place, High Barbaree is the ship. And then the rest just came tumbling out.

I’ll be playing this at nwcMUSIC, if I can wedge in time between running all the things. XD

High Barbaree
2012 Crime and the Forces of Evil
Neighbourhood of E

Look ahead, look astern, look the weather in the lee
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we
There’s a lofty ship about us; we sail fast and free
Sailin’ down along the coast on High Barbaree

Oh are we a pirate, or man o’ war?
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we
It depends on who you’re askin’; we’ve been both before
Sailin’ down along the coast on High Barbaree
Oh if you are Alaskan, then we bring you your breads
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we
But the Californians hate us, and they’re after our heads
Singin’ down along the coast on High Barbaree

Runnin’ gun, runnin’ rum, runnin’ iron and gold
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we
And sometimes runnin’ things we don’t wanna be told
Sailing down along the coast on High Barbaree
The Douglas Fir we’re flyin’; this sea it is ours
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we
And should you try to stop us we’ll put flame to your stars
Singin’ down along the coast on High Barbaree

Oh priviteering’s rough, not much pay to be had
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we
The voyage is never ending, and the food’s pretty bad
Sailing down along the coast on high barbaree
But be a Yankee or a Dixie? Oh I’d rather be dead
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we
We’re betting all we’ve got that something better’s ahead
Singin’ down along the coast on High Barbaree
Sailing down along the coast on High Barbaree

Sometimes I take old folk songs and rewrite them into the Republic of Cascadia universe. That’s where “Columbia” came from, for example – the first song I wrote what got covered by another artist. Sometimes I write new music, sometimes I don’t. The latest one is “High Barbaree,” which is an old song about a pirate encounter, and of course, in all traditional versions, the pirates lose, but that’s not the way we roll here, now, is it?

But while I came up with a chord set I really like – yeah, this is one I’m substantially rewriting – I’d been stuck for a while on lyrics. Then last Thursday, I realised that in my version, High Barbaree is the name of the ship, not the locale, and a nice chunk of verses all came tumbling out of my brain. Yay!

It’s now about blockade-running privateers for the Republic, and atypically cheery for me. It’s not finished, but now I see how to get there; I should have a first draft ready for nwcMUSIC 2012/Norwescon 35. T-10 days and counting!

So at the Portland show, I actually did “Open Mic Night at the Winking Skeever, a.k.a. Anybody Got a Banjo?” and I was also trying out all kinds of new hardware and setup and stuff? And it mostly worked! The audio setup changes ALL WORKED PERFECTLY. I couldn’t believe it, but it’s true! If I can get a handle on lighting, I can make some really good videos.

But people liked the Skyrim/Winking Skeever lyrics when I posted them, so this happened:

Now I am off to Vancouver! Four days back in beautiful British Columbia! Yay! o/

There’s a funny thing about Irish tunes.

I’ve been going to an Irish/Celtic Session, down in Renton, with Anna, for a year now, and playing. Actually, it was a year last month, and we had an anniversary party of the session’s founding. (Wednesdays, A Terrible Beauty, Renton, 7pm. C’mon by!) There’s a big picture of one of the session meetings up on the wall; I’m in that photo. Anna and I are session founders; Anna heard about it starting up and said, “Hey, let’s go!” and I thought it sounded fun.

I should explain; “tunes” are different to “songs.” “Songs” have lyrics; tunes are instrumental, with a primary melody, played on melodic instruments, with maybe one person playing chorded instruments along as well, and maybe a drum. Lukey is a song; Road to Lisdoonvarna is a tune. Search on those if you want, you’ll have a zillion hits. There are thousands of tunes, some of which are centuries old; they’re both dance music and a conduit for parts of traditional Irish culture. They attract attention, they’re accessible, people react to them positively, and enjoy them.

I’ve been trying to learn the language of of these things for over a year now. I’ve learned some of the tunes pretty well; I’ve learned some others not as well. I recognise a lot of the tropes and rhythms.

But as much as I hate to say it, emotionally, Irish session tunes still mostly don’t make sense to me as music. It’s not that they aren’t melodic, and of course I’m not saying they aren’t music, because of course they are. But for me – they’re like particularly melodic but ultimately arbitrary exercises. Where you’ve just been says little or nothing about where you’re about to go.

I thought by now I’d start to get it. But I don’t. I enjoy going down and hanging out with everybody; it’s a nice place, it’s fun, people come out specifically for it, to listen. A lot of the time, we’re pretty good.

But in a way I’ve never run into before – at least not so clearly and not after so much effort – they aren’t music. They don’t make that connection in my head. They’re streams of notes to me in the same way that sheet music is an ocean of dots to me. Something just … doesn’t connect.

And I don’t know what.