Music About Nothing

Can’t Get No Worse

Alex — Sun, 05 May 2013 04:54:24 +0000

Music About Nothing’s days with WordPress are up. Thank you for supporting it on here. But now we’ve moved to the next generation of Music About Nothing:

Music About Nothing

New Album Progress

Alex — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:10:08 +0000

For the last month or so, I’ve been working on my next album. I haven’t had a lot of time, so I’ve had to do it in a way similar to how I did it on my two-year religious sabbatical: in my head. That’s not a very fun way, but it’s effective. The problem I face is that I don’t have a band. I have no way of knowing what a song will sound like until it is recorded. So I have to imagine it in my mind and make guesses about what will sound good together. It’s not really my favorite.

When I’m working on an album, I like to be very organized about it. I make charts and tables and I record demos and I have different folders in Google Docs for which step of the process each song is in. I just finished the arrangement step for all 11 songs on this new album, which means that all the songs are now in the “Record” folder, every column on the album chart has an “X” except for “Recording,” and my iPod has a playlist of demos of all 11 songs.

I haven’t decided which part is harder–the recording or the arranging. Recording takes longer, but arranging requires me to use my imagination without getting any sort of feedback from the actual sound of the thing. It’s hard to be creative and original when I am writing things down like “Guitar on left plays riff 1″ or “Acoustic strumming” or sometimes even just “Strings” and hoping that, when I record, I’ll remember what it was that I thought would be so great about that.

Anyways, I’ve got 11 pretty good songs on tap for this upcoming album. I’m hoping to get it done sooner rather than later, but you never know with these things.

Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t done so already, go listen to my first album, Better Than You’d Think. It really is.

My Song #10: Continental

Alex — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:10:26 +0000

Download

From April 2010 to April 2011, I lived in an apartment complex called “Continental Apartments.” The place is, to put it mildly, a dump. I had excellent neighbors, but the apartment itself was really the worst. I compiled a short (and still incomplete) list of everything that was wrong with the apartment:

[Show List] [Hide List]

But yeah. Anyways, I wrote this song a while back, but decided to forgive them and not post the song. But then I got my deposit refund back and discovered that my $200 deposit had magically turned into a $40 return in an epic Continental-style money grab. They even charged me for the envelope and stamp I provided for them! Nice. Real nice.

So, I hope you enjoy this rock ballad about an apartment complex that hurt me so.

Lyrics: [Show] [Hide]

More Music I’ve Listened to

Alex — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:35:05 +0000

Finally, after about six months in development, I released my debut album, Better Than You’d Think. I’m pretty excited about that for two reasons. The first reason is that I feel like I accomplished something. The second reason is that I’m glad I can get back to writing new music.

I’m pretty excited for that because I’ve been listening to some different music recently and would like to try some new things. In my attempt to hear new kinds of music, I’ve started trying to listen to the albums in the first 50 of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums that I haven’t heard yet. I’ve heard about half of them at this point. Here are the one’s I’ve listened to recently:

4. Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan may not be my favorite singer in the world, but he sure knows how to write songs. Gotta love lines like this: “The sun isn’t yellow; it’s chicken.”

7. Exile on Main St., The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones may not be my favorite band in the world, but they sure know how to write songs that sound the same.

11. The Sun Sessions, Elvis Presley

Elvis is great. These songs are all pretty simple, and they’re all solid, mostly because of Elvis’ vocal performance.

12. Kind of Blue, Miles Davis

Not the kind of album I’ll listen to all the way through a lot, but it was definitely worth listening to. Miles Davis and John Coltrane do some great work.

13. The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really like this album too much. I recognize its merits, but I just don’t care enough about heroin to really dig it, I guess.

18. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen

I think this and Exile on Main St. are two albums I’ll have to listen to again in order to differentiate which song was which. I do really love the title track “Born to Run,” though.

20. Thriller, Michael Jackson

Brilliant. “Thriller,” “Beat It,” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” and “Billie Jean” all on the same album? Gotta be good.

25. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac

I know these songs by sound but not by name. Pretty sure I’ve heard all of them before. Also, it took me a while to remember Lindsey Buckingham is not actually Bill Hader.

New Album Has Arrived!

Alex — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:05:37 +0000

As promised. The new album has arrived! Check it out here!
Better Than You’d Think

Cover Song #7: Jamie

Alex — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:38:54 +0000

Download

As part of my countdown to the release of Better Than You’d Think, I’m going to release a song every day for the rest of the week. I decided I’d start out with a cover song.

This song is a B-side from Weezer’s Blue Album era. They have an electric version and a live acoustic version. This is sort of a merging of the two. I hope you like it.

Tomorrow, I’ll be releasing an acoustic version of a rejected track from Better Than You’d Think, recorded as a voice memo on my iPod Touch.

Title, Cover, and Track Listing!

Alex — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:28:23 +0000

Design by Ben Morrise

Hello! On the heels of yesterday’s big news comes even more big news! This time, it’s the album title, album art, and complete track listing! Ready?

Better Than You’d Think
Release Date: 7/5/2011

Track Listing:
1. Decide
2. This Way
3. Destined to Be Lonely
4. Lego Guy
5. I Hate Me, Too
6. You Bother Me
7. The Sky Is Falling
8. You Can’t Take It from Me, Jolin
9. Hey, Man, What’s Wrong with Your Car?
10. Let’s Go to the Sun
11. Across the River

Album Release Date!

Alex — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 21:32:12 +0000

Hey, everybody! I know you’ve all just been waiting anxiously for this announcement, and it’s finally here! Are you ready?

The release date for my new album, my true Freshman album, is July 5th, 2011. Yes, you read that right! Two weeks from today!

Here are some details about the album:

1. The album is now eleven (11) excellent tracks long!

2. All songs are original. Each song, new or old, has been re-recorded for maximum awesome.

3. This will be the first album I’ve ever had professionally mastered.

4. I’ll be selling the album through Bandcamp. Yes, selling. But it’ll be free to listen to it.

Here are some details to be announced in the next few days:

1. The title of the album.

2. The design of the album cover.

3. The official track listing.

Check back soon for more details! And please tell people about this!

A show! A show! We have got a show!

Alex — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:16:22 +0000

Hi. We’re playing a show. This Friday. It’s going to be, like, the best thing you’ve ever attended. Please, please come. My friends Luke Heperi, Matt Karlsven, and Steven Meyer are going to be accompanying me. It’ll be $5-6 at the door.

Click here for more information.

Music I’ve Heard Recently

Alex — Sun, 22 May 2011 20:18:15 +0000

I hear that indie music is really good. I only hear that, though. I’m too lazy to actually go out and find some indie music to listen to. Most of what I listen to is very mainstream, but it’s usually mainstream because it’s good. That being said, I wouldn’t mind listening to some indie stuff, if you can recommend any.

Here are ten albums I listened to all the way through recently (in no particular order), as well as what I thought about each.

1. The Cars, The Cars

Can’t believe I’ve never heard this before. Lots of great stuff on this. Sometimes it gets a little weird, but it’s altogether a very solid album.

2. Absolution, Muse

I recently decided I like Muse. I love their grandiose style and how even though they employ very heavy guitars, it doesn’t usually feel overbearing. The only problem with Muse is that, due to their lyrics, listening to one of their albums always makes me afraid of everything.

3. Odelay, Beck

Turns out “Odelay” is a real word after all, and not just because it’s in the Becktionary. Interesting album. Beck’s voice perfectly fits his music. Or maybe it’s the other way around.

4. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin

I ashamedly only recently started listening to Led Zeppelin. This album is one of their best–what album with “Good Times Bad Times” as the opener could be bad?

5. Love, The Beatles

As a huge Beatles fan, this album is one of my favorites of all time. There are so many wonderful things in here, and George Martin’s new string arrangement that goes with George Harrison’s acoustic version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is perfect.

6. Blues, Jimi Hendrix

Jimi doing what Jimi does best.

7. What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye

Great music, great message. The best track is the title track. It starts sounding all the same near the end, but it’s still a pretty great listen.

8. Amnesiac, Radiohead

This is sort of the dividing line between the Radiohead I love and the Radiohead I like. OK Computer and The Bends are two of my favorite albums of all time, but I’m still unsure of how I feel about Radiohead’s later electronic and rhythm-based (and thus less melodic) endeavors.

9. Kaleidoscope Heart, Sara Bareilles

I really dig Sara Bareilles’s singing, piano playing, and solid melodies.

10. November’s Chopin, Jay Chou

I own all 10 of Jay Chou’s studio albums, and this one is of my favorites. “Blue Storm” rocks, “Coral Sea” is a beautiful duet, and “Maple” is easily one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard.

Do you have any recommendations? I’d love to hear them!