This song has been the biggest mess of the month. It was the second idea I had, the first that wasn't dropped. I have fought with it more than any other song I've ever recorded. The drum parts have been recorded twice. They rhythm guitars have…

Musically speaking I wanted something fast and dumb. Lyrically speaking I wanted to use the word "rageface" for some unknown reason. Given how silly the whole thing was I went with the line "you laugh at my rageface" because is there anything…

When I finished high school I went straight to college as a music major. I knew it was a mistake even before I started, but music was my all consuming passion and I had zero interest in anything else. I figured I had to give it a shot even though…

7/8 time and the song form is A-B-C-D-A. Just a goofy little attempt at not repeating sections. This is the second time this RPM I've done that. Sort of. I don't know where the idea for writing about Darwin came from, but for me when an…

RPM Challenge song #6. Look at me, half way there! Everything I had for the month was really slow until this fell into my lap. I sort of forced it, but it was fun to record. The lyrics are a ghost story about a spirit that haunts the Mt…

I woke up this morning and looked out the window at all of the snow. The endless landscape of blank, frozen emptiness, and I just felt sick. I wanted nothing more than to go back to bed and sleep until May. So what did I do to combat this depression…

It only took four songs for me to start writing lyrics about being worried about finishing RPM on time. Typical. This was originally just a few separate 8 bar phrases. Normally I'd spread them out and create some sort of song form out of…

This is one of those songs that I had in my head complete (except for the lyrics) and I was really excited about. Unfortunately, what we have on the demo sounds nothing like what I was hearing in my head. With the possible exception of the snare…

I liked this one a lot more before realizing (after all of the tracks were finished) that the guitar part is awfully similar to a Throwing Muses song from the brilliant House Tornado album. My plan to double all rhythm guitar and vocal parts…

The first song completed for the 2015 RPM Challenge. This is historic for me in that it's an RPM song that used a real amplifier instead of a software simulator. It's not my cool Marshall, it's my Fender who once took a bath in gasoline (long…

This song makes it's third appearance on alonetone. Once from a cassette tape of the band playing it back in 1997, once from my first crack at an album in a month back in 2007, and now this. This song was so simple and basic and nothing but…

This was written while I was working in a studio back in 1994 or 95. It was originally just a few little piano licks that I arranged into a song. I remember at the time I had trouble playing some of the parts on guitar, and some of the sections…

This is another Prime Meridian song. I wanna say late 1997 or early 1998. We tended to write songs in bunches, but I don't think so in this case. If I remember correctly, this one just sort of fell into place somehow. We were noodling around…

We wrote this one in... I wanna say... 1998? Had we ever moved beyond Maria's basement I would have pushed to get this released as a single. I thought it was our best shot at a hit, even if my lyrics were just god awful. The guitars here…

As a warm up for the RPM Challenge I have gotten into the habit of digging up old mostly forgotten songs from my carefree youth and recording new demos. This year seems to be mostly focused on a band I played in between 1997 and 2000. This song…

Another song with lyrics that I have no recollection of writing. What the hell is it about? I had six songs recorded and mixed before I realized I didn't have a single time signature other than 4/4. I remedied that right quick. This is…

This one is a mess. Everything is too busy. The mix includes massive compression everywhere because I did a crappy job recording things. During the mix I changed the bass sound, changed the drum sound, went from having the two rhythm guitars…

I had 10 songs in progress. Now that I have no more opportunities to record vocals between now and the end of the month I had to drop one of the songs. I felt kinda bad about it. Losing one of the songs ruins a gimmick I was working with…

I had declared the NaSoAlMo project complete after starting the eighth song. Then I had some free time and started this cheese ball. Later I added a 10th song too. What a nitwit. This marks the end of both of my mini-goals for November…

It wasn't until I was sitting in front of my computer trying to write lyrics to this one that I realized it is very, very similar to a song from last year's NaSoAlMo. Sorry about that. If I told you that the lyrics to this were based on…