Occasional Demos

3/23/09

Here's a song I recorded this weekend:
Sheets of Rain

We were born side by side
by piles of rags and woven leather shoes
the windows were blue the walls were white
our shadows long on the floorboards of our room

and then that summer came
in sheets of rain, sheets of rain

our faces changed our clothes grew tight
the wind would catch the tangles of your hair
crows picked the field in the morning light
I will wait for you there

here I am again

your eyes were wild then
like church bells in the sun
you held the stems that cut your hands
I saw the blood run down your thumbs

I've got nothing left to change

3/15/09

"Leaves and Limes (A Kiss Could Be Enough)"

I wrote this one in a crazy fit in NYC, the same day I extracted a $5 bill from a mouse nest in the room I was in and used it to buy a sandwich. I had just gotten back from a tour and didn't have anything to do but write songs.

The original version of this song is fast and sung in a David Bowie style yelp. I revisited it a year later after coming up with the acoustic guitar line.

The chorus is vaguely aimed at Aiden Coughlin, the singer of the Seattle-based band Brigg Fair, who I sort of knew in college. It was a running joke then that I was trying to unseat him as indie rock king of Harrisonburg, but he didn't know it. For a short time, I was showing up to gigs that he was at dressed like him, attempting to sing like him, but the feud never really took. In fact, he didn't seem to realize I existed, which made the whole thing much, much funnier. I have nothing but respect for the guy, and this song is something of an ode to a attempting to start a rivalry with someone who doesn't even realize you're there.

Lyrics:

Godard on Godard
Casper's damned to life
Lucien Freud naked in the pines
with the longshoreman's wife
the longshoreman's wife

well, I caught them at the gun
reading nursery rhymes
little Harry West
with buttons on his chest
eating leaves and limes
eating leaves and limes

I'm six feet, weak and white
begging for your love
come on honey
you're better than me
a kiss could be enough

hey kids don't cry
at rock and roll shows
laugh and wink and throw
roses in your drink
dress in beggars clothes
dress in beggars clothes

yeah aiden coughlin
I've heard him sing
of meadow leaves
and yellowbelly thieves
and iridescent dragonfly wings
iridescent dragonfly wings

I'm six feet, weak and white
begging for your love
come on honey
you're better than me
a kiss could be enough