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2/14/2006 Music Free Valentine's Day Song: Some Dumb Day (2.36 MB mp3). (Right click, Save As.. )
Happy Valentine's Day to you single people out there who won't be getting any flowers. Well, I got you some flowers, and a song. I'm thinking of you. Yes, you. Wondering how you are doing. How is love treating you? I know some curse this day, but be not bitter. Love, like life, comes and goes. Odds are, Love will return someday.
2/12-2/18/2006 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Rainwash Me (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
Here's another re-worked song, just a practice tape, from my bedroom studio.
New: Revised version with different lyrics in one part posted 2/18 is better.
There is a bit of science research embeded: The average rain drop falls 7 miles per hour and the average nimbostratus rain cloud is about 1/2 mile to a mile high. So... I figure a raindrop falls for about 4 minutes on average.
12/9/2005 Music / Freedom. Post guitar chords and lyrics, go to jail?
You know what, Music Publishers Association does not speak for me. Having your lyrics out there on the net along with guitar chords for the kids to learn generates a buzz and leads to increased concert and record sales. That's why this story cheesed me off.
I bet a lot of people are thinking this: Time to hit google, find the sites and archive all the chords and lyrics you can find before some new law is passed. I swear, control freaks want to bottle and sell nearly enjoyable thing ... and then eventually make it a crime to not pay them." The U.S.-based Music Publishers Association is calling for a halt to websites that share
song chords and lyrics. The move is an escalation in the copyright war against file-sharing on the internet. ... The sites seldom have sheet music, such as a music publisher would print, but outline guitar chords for amateur musicians trying to pick out their favourite songs. They also have text of the lyrics. Amateur guitarists and bass players have long copied popular songs by ear. The internet has become an alternative source for when they can't figure out a chord.
[Lauren ] Keiser [ MPA association president ] called for closing of sites that share guitar licks and lyrics and recommended jail time for site administrators who don't comply." - cba
11/15/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Still Inside (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
If you ever get the chance to wish for one thing, wish for contentment.
11/12/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Mister Nobody (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
"Mr. Nobody" is a snapshot of my mood tonight.
There is a black hole at the center of our Universe called Sagittarius A. I think I can feel it's gigantic sucking right now. It eats everything. Light, matter, faith ... and my attempts at finding true love. Yes, I blame that black hole. I don't blame myself or my now-gone girlfriends. We all tried, it just didn't work out.
11/11/2005 Music. Some music videos by some cats I know.
11/5/2005 Music / Art / Blog. My weekend. Music, furniture, movies, friends.
A fairly good day. Slowly getting used to being single again.
Bought a new kitchen table after much shopping all over heck and back.
Saw the sign (left) and joked with my friend about potato testicles.
Heard part of a new CD from David Houston. Great stuff.
Saw the latest Wallace and Gromit movie, which compared to Chicken Run was very light and non-political. It made me laugh a few times.
Then caught an art exhibit in midtown Sacramento. There were some singers there I enjoyed, two women, one on the organ, and a guy playing guitar. Nice harmonies. I didn't get the name of the band. Pic below along with some of the art.
Finally, attended Danny Secretion's "Lame-ass birthday bash", a punk music benefit for a friend of Danny's who has or had cancer. Shown at the well attended event was a short music video "Cemetary Pogo" by horror filmmaker Jonathan Morken. The bands I saw included: the Secretions, Last chance, Final Summation, Sex Tape Scandal, Ashtray, Shenanigoats, Broken Promises, Social Concern, Va Va Voom. You can find all of the above bands on "My Space". Here is my: short crappy video of the Secretions. Photo below is of Social Concern, three girls from Redding, CA.
11/12/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Mister Nobody (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
This new song, "Mr. Nobody", is a re-work of an old song of mine called "I go blind."
There is a black hole at the center of our Universe called Sagittarius A. I think I can feel it's gigantic sucking right now. It eats everything. Light, matter, faith ... and my attempts at finding true love. Yes, I blame that black hole. I don't blame myself or my now-gone girlfriends. We all tried, it just didn't work out.
10/5/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Solstice (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
Okay, as I mentioned yesterday, here is another song. This one is about the Summer Solstice. Every single second our sun gets 4 million metric tons lighter as this much of its mass is converted to pure energy. The average overweight American is now around 160 lbs, so ... the sun converts a mass equivalent to 55 million ( 55,115,567 ) Americans per second. Or, by contrast, 62 million ( 62,989,218 ) Europeans per second. This happens in accord with the famous formula E=mc^2. But, really, who cares?
This is not one of my favorite songs and I'm considering throwing it out and never using it on a CD, but some of the guitar picking stuff was fun to play. On the mixing side, I've turned everything up to 11, compressed, and EQ'd so this song is max loud, but still done with acoustic guitars. Enjoy.
10/4/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Hollow Earth (1.9 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
I haven't worked on my article on the subject in ages, but someone sent me an email about it a few days ago so I know there is still interest out there in this strange idea. Admiral Bird was a real guy, that much I believe.
Enjoy. Tomorrow, I'll post another song. The next one will be about the Summer Solstice. Why? I don't know. Because. - Xeno
8/25/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Time Capsule (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
Recorded last night while my girlfriend was trying to sleep. The guitar is messy in places, but I didn't feel like redoing it. I will someday. These sketches I'm posting are just to get a rough idea of the songs which will be re-recorded later in high quality studio versions with vocal harmony, more instruments, etc. Other song sketches here.
8/19/2005 Music / Blog. Voice Lessons
I'd like to improve my singing. My critical self assessment is that I'm great one or two times per song, but not at every point during the song. (Just ok, or sometimes not so hot.) For voice lessons, there are so many schools, so many teachers. Which is best? Seth Riggs, voice coach to the stars, is my choice after much research. To see if his techniques help me, check in the next few months and see if my MP3 song sketches are any better compared to the past MP3's I've posted. A little work each day, and before you know it ... progress! That's my hope. The Riggs site has a free 3 hour video of a class you can view. Seth has been the voice coach for Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Goldie Hawn, Olivia Newton-John and many more.
8/22/2005 Blog. Recorded four song rough drafts this weekend (below). Having fun with voice lessons. Trying to hit and hold my pitches better. Working on staying connected and not letting notes "splat".
8/22/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Bird, Sea Bird (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
Other song sketches here.
8/21/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Uranium Train (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
Other song sketches here.
8/20/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: When To Go Home (~3 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
Other song sketches here.
8/20/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Not to Mention Love (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
Other song sketches here.
8/16/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Indecent Time. (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
What if they set off the anti-matter bomb? Well, we'll just have to go live like the Native Americans did in the older days. You know, that might not be so bad.
Other song sketches here.
8/15/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Experience is a comb that nature gives us when we are bald. (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
This song says: Enjoy what you have now. Otherwise, one day, you will look back and wish you'd appreciated your life more.
Other song sketches here.
8/11/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Love Jail (3 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
Other song sketches here.
8/10/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Fast Enough (3 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)
Other song sketches here.
6/7/2005 Music. Amy Anne Solo Project!
Hello friends. Check out amyanne.com the new home of my long time music partner, the stunningly musical Amy Anne. Downloadable song too.
7/17/2005 Music / Blog. The Lost Xenophilia Songs.
New summer project: Get all songs I've ever written on this site, at least with just myself and guitar.
Click here to view the lost songs that I'm working on adding. Many need to be reworked since they were written before I'd settled into my groove as a songwriter. Let me know if one of your favorites isn't listed.
7/8/2005 Music / Fun. Xenophilia to Play Sci Fi Event. New Promotional Flyer.
What: Xenophilia (Amy Anne and I) play Saturday night (tomorrow) at a Science Fiction Festival.
Where: Scottish Rite Temple Auditorum, 6151 H St. Sacramento, CA 95819
When: Event runs Noon till 9 PM, but we are on 7:30 pm.
How much: Just $10 at the door! Plenty of free parking! Free for kids ages 5 and younger, and $5 for children ages 6 to 12.
"Fantastic Frontiers NorCal Sci-Fi/Fantasy Social Club (www.fantasticfrontiers.com) and Hidden Passage Book Store (Placerville) are pleased to present "Star Struck: Out of this World, " a muti-media, multi-genre fan convention to be held July 9, 2005 at the Scottish Rite Temple Auditorum in Sacramento!
"This special event is intended to raise funds for the science program at ARCOHE SCHOOL, (... Herald, CA ... ), a local rural elementary, and to to promote the educational literacy program READING FOR THE FUTURE, www.readingforfuture.com, while expanding and connecting the large Sacramento speculative fiction community."
6/18/2005 Music Video Watch this Time Lapse Drive from LA to New York. Neat. Nice catchy song too. From Laquer.
6/17/2005 Music Free Sounds.
Check out the free sound project. Interesting sound effects.
6/10/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Warlord Zang (840K mp3) (right click, save as..)
This song is my small contribution to the local trash movie being made by our friends at the Trash Film Orgy. The song was originally written and performed by Xenophilia for the I Can't Believe It's Not Comedy shows, where our hot friend Amber (my favorite local actress) played an evil cartoon-like male villan. More about the movie here:
"Written 5/28/05: You should be getting pumped to see the TFO movie this summer! With over 40 actors and more than 11 intricately designed sets, this movie is EPIC!" - TFO Movie Update
4/5/2005 Music. Songwriting Rules. Open the doors of creativity. Here are my top 25 personal songwriting rules after learning hundreds of other people's songs and writing my own for years.
1. Sing and play in tune. (How: Get a tuner, listen, repeat until correct.)
2. Get your timing / rhythm solid, in the pocket. (Get a metronome, record, repeat until correct.)
3. Songs are paintings of moods and events with sound. (What should you paint?)
4. Say something completely fascinating. (Know what interests people, know yourself.)
5. Simultaneously aim for the head (ideas), the heart (love/hate) and the groin (make feet tap).
5. Avoid cliches "like the plague".
5. Break your own rules. There are no rules. Rules are dumb.
5. Call everything number "5" to confuse your fingers.
6. Do the unexpectators.
7. Push yourself. Write songs you can't play because they are too difficult.
8. Find new rhythms, new chords, new progressions, new words, new ideas.
9. Listen to everything to build your library of vocal and instrumental tricks.
10. Use themes and variation. Repeat, but with a twist.
11. Edit. Keep the brilliant parts, re-work everything else.
12. Memorize it and let yourself play on auto pilot while you entertain an audience.
13. Don't be superstitious.
14. Pay your dues. Play everywhere you can. Keep what works. Improve.
15. Don't skimp on equipment. Buy the best sounding stuff you can afford.
16. Try co-writing, trade off parts.
17. Spend hours and hours playing with random song ideas until you hit gold.
18. Great unwritten songs are just hidden. Go find them in your head.
19. Rhyming is optional and should be done with smarts.
20. Start slowly, build naturally, hit the highs, bring them back down.
25. Every 6 to 10 seconds your song should have something new. Guide the ears.Subject to change without notice.
3/18-3/19/2005 Music. Experiement: Here's a little guitar diddy I wrote. I call it "Paris Hilton's Underpants" because web traffic surveys say that surfers like that name. This left hand tapping and right hand tap-and-pull-off riff is a good finger exercise. While the left hand is playing the bass notes, the right hand plays a pull-off melody, and the two hands join for the final riff. Be sure to let the open strings ring out. The open D and the open G-strings are the keys to Paris Hilton's Underpants. Check out these five hot cell-phone cam videos of Paris Hilton's Underpants to hear how the riff sounds and to get an idea of what my fingers are doing in Paris Hilton's Underpants. (Requires QuickTime).
Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4, Video 5
TAB: ^ = pull off. Bold = Left hand tapping
E|---------------------------|--------------------------|
B|---------------------------|--------------------------|
G|---------------------7^0---|--------------------9^0---|
D|-----7^0-----9^0-----------|----7^0-----9^0-----------|
A|---5-------5-------5-----5-|--5-------5-------5-----5-|
E|-3-------3-------3---------|3-------3-------3---------|E|---------------------------|--------------------------|
B|---------------------------|--------------------------|
G|---------------------------|--------------------------|
D|-----7^0-----9^0-----7^0---|--7^0-5-7^5^0-------------|
A|---5-------5-------5-------|5-------------5-7^5^0-----|
E|-3-------3-------3-------3-|----------------------5-3-|
3/14/2005 Music Free Download / Free Song: Some Dumb Day (2.36 MB mp3). (Right click, Save As.. )
Holy Toledo!That's me on the radio and I don't sound bad at all....
3/8/2005 Music. Voice Lessons. Are there free voice lessons available on line? Sure. Check out vocalist.org. Here's a free lesson on resonance. Also, here is an interesting service. For $99.00 you can hire a vocal coach on line who will work with you in a video conference one-on-one singing lesson.
There are singers I admire (Mraz, McFerrin, McCartney, McCrea) and each as vocal skills / tricks I'd like to learn. First, you should obviously change your last name so it starts with an "M". That is probably the best advice for singers.
3/8/2005 Music. Voice Pitch/Ear Training Software. I'd like a tool that can show me how well I'm singing a phrase in key? Bing! With the $100 version you can even enter your own songs.
"Carry-a-Tune Technologies (www.carryatune.com), Tampa, Fla., is the developer and marketer of a unique new family of software products that use specialized computer-aided pitch tracking to teach people how to sing in tune and on tempo. The company's initial two consumer products are Singing Coach(TM) and Singing Coach Unlimited(TM). These products combine patent-pending technology with entertaining, animated on-screen vocal coaching to teach people at all levels to sing better, whether or not they can read music. These first-of-their-kind products take the fun of karaoke and add real-time visual feedback of the singer's pitch and rhythm to enable adults and children alike to sing better and enjoy singing." Sales and Customer Service: 1-888-378-5050.
Let me know if anyone finds free pitch graphing software for PCs. Other things to try: Phontuner is a shareware program that gives you realtime visual feedback on your pitch, but it is only for PocketPCs and some cell phones (but not mine, dang.) The program is in German. Won't run on regular PCs.
Ear Training sites
PracticaMusica www.ars-nova.com/practica.html "New Vocalis voice input technology allows Practica Musica users to sing or play instruments into activities such as Pitch Reading, Interval Playing, etc. Voice input is done using any standard USB microphone."
Music Study www.musicstudy.com freeware & demos.
Earplane www.earplane.com.
Improvisor www.invite-software.com.
Earope www.cope.dk/english.
Auralia at www.risingsoftware.com.
EarMaster www.earmaster.com.
Big Ears www.usschoolofmusic.com/eargym/eargym.html
Relative pitch course www.perfectpitch.com/relativepitch.htm
More here, here and here.
3/7/2005 Music / Strange Happenings. (reg) Bono may head World Bank. "Front man of Irish U2 , rock idol and social activist Bono may become the next to head World Bank , U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow has said on ABC's ‘This Week.' Snow said that he wouldn't rule out Irish rock star as a potential successor to current World Bank President John Wolfensohn."
2/17/2005 Blog / Xenophilia Gigs / Kloss News. Luna's Cafe. Thanks to everyone who turned out to see us this last Wednesday at Luna's Cafe in Sacramento. What a fun show! Here are some pictures from past shows we've done. If you have a place you'd like us to play, drop me a line. ( Amber Kloss, our area booking agent is in LA for a while working on her Hollywood acting career! )
2/14/2005 Music Free Download / Free Song: Get Off My Head (2.36 MB mp3).
Lyrics For "Get Off My Head" by Xeno: I could easily forget you if you'd just get off my head. In the apartment above me there's a girl who didn't love me, but I did. Now she's stompling around with some
new boy she found, it paints my ceiling red. And I could easily forget her if she'd just get off my head. I could easily forget you if you'd let me sleep at night. I don't want to know your business but it's hard to hear you fight. And the power of the memory of the week or two we spent, is tearing me to pieces every time I pay the rent and I could easily forget her if she'd just get off my head. Get off my head. There's an angel feet above my bed. Get off my.. have a little level of decency. Would you wait a little while, a week for me? You know I can't forget. I could move into the country I could grow myself some wine. I could store it in the cellar I could sell it and grow rich in time. But I never will forget the girl upstairs and my delight when I held her at the ocean on a cold romantic night and I could easily forget her but I won't. It's just not right. Get off my head. There's an angel feet above my bed. Get off my.. have a little level of decency. Would you wait a little while, a week for me? You know I can't forget. You know I must forget.
2/14/2005 Music Free Download / Free Song: The Mothman (2.54 MB mp3).
Lyrics For "The Mothman" by Xeno: Oooh. The mothman. Man. 1966, Point Pleasant West Virginia Four sober witnesses saw a thing with legs like a man, wings that wrap around, no visible arms no neck,
no head. They swore it spread its ten foot wings and flew above the car at 100 miles an hour! Moth man. Moth. Man. Route 62 by the C. C. Lewis farm, and the national Guard Armory. Thirty people saw fieryred eyes, large in size right where its shoulders should be. One man contended it was caused by the US space program. All this talk of going to the moon, no telling what they've caused to come down. And people who had never seen it, said it was just a bird, some people who had never seen it, said it was just a bird, yeah, right. A seven foot head less bird with muscular legs like a man and eyes in its shoulders. It was one of those seven food headless birds with legs like a man and hypnotic eyes in its shoulders. Here birdy birdy birdy. Seven foot moth. Seven foot man. Here birdy birdy birdy. Pardon me General we've got the gaw-dang winged moon men coming down messing with the populace. Excuse me general we've got the gosh-dang winged mon men walking round messing with the populace. The mothman, the moth. Man.
Of course, the thing I like best about the song is that is it based on a true story, a true X-file that was never solved... at least not publicly. The facts are from newspaper articles written in 1966 and from some eye-witness accounts. There is much more to the story. Real Men in Black, UFOs, and some interesting things about the mothman that didn't make it into the song. For example, he left oval footprints like two horse shoes stuck together. The prints were about 3.5 inches across.
2/14/2005 Music Free Download / Free Song: Growing Your Clone (2.84 MB mp3).
Lyrics For "Growing Your Clone" by Xeno: Smart slap in the face, skin cells from your hand, I've captured your DNA and, quick back to my lab, sweet genius I absolutely love my sick plan. I'm growing
your clone. And I will not spend one ugly night alone. I'm growing your clone. Please sent in the maid, tell her to bring breath spray, tell her that her and her seven identical sisters are some of the very most lovely lovelies to ease my fits of madness when I say strange things like "The sun is a giant eye, the sun is a giant mouth, the sun is a giant ear that hears the comets coming to destroy us, sun is a giant eye, sun is a giant mouth, the sun is a gyroscopic heliopolis where Ra decrees that, "I'm growing your clone. And I will not spend one ugly night alone, I'm growing your clone, bone by bone, by bone by bone by bone! Let's see now, I've got the recipe from the Internet, and I need some graduated cylinders, and some endoplasmic reticulum, I'm going to grow your clone! (Evil laugh). Growing a mess of your replicas going to dress them up call them all Jessica adding a pheromone. I am, growing a mess of your replicas going to dress them up call them all Jessica then I'll just stay at home. I'm growing your clone. Growing your clone. Bone by bone by bone by bone by bone.
2/7/2005 Music Free Download / Free Song: Tinfoil Hat (1.34 MB mp3).
Lyrics for "Tinfoil Hat " by Xeno: Growing up in my strange town, we had a man who used to walk around in a suit of aluminum foil. He left a widow on a plot of good soil. Tinfoil
hat, tinfoil hat, never go and use your good foil like that son. Tin foil head, tin foil hat, you never want to go and use the foil like that. Now mind control is a maze, you're a rat, but they'll never sell you nothing through a tinfoil hat. Aluminum, aluminum, al-u-min-ee-um, you've got a radiation oven in your kitchen. Illuminati very naughty microwaves into the body HAARP and the satellites,. GWEN is gonna, GWEN is gonna lock on to your cell phone find you on a map, but they can't do the zap through the tinfoil hat. P-p-paranoia make you twitchy like a cat but they'll never read your dirty mind, never know you're always lyin', never gonna know you're freaky in your tinfoil hat... Mu mu, ma ne ne. Growing up in my strange town, we had a man who used to walk around in a suit of aluminum foil. He left a widow on a plot of good soil. Tinfoil hat, tinfoil hat, never go and use your good foil like that son. Tinfoil head, tinfoil hat, you never want to go and use the foil like that. Mu mu, ma ne ne. They're never gonna know you're freaky in your tinfoil hat.
2/6-2/7/2005 Music Free Download / Free Song: Fear of Success (2.75 MB mp3).
Lyrics for "Fear of Success" by Xeno: Welcome friends to Luna's Cafe. I'm Xeno and this is Amy A. My intro to music as a child: Some of you've heard this one, it goes "Born to be Wild". My uncle George
You can download "Born to Be Wild" and "Magic Carpet Ride" as MP3's from the Steppenwolf site. They aren't the whole songs, but still neat, legal and free.laid down that Steppenwolf bass. The music was my magic carpet ride up into space and so I got a guitar, Learned my thousand favorite songs, me and my friends had fun we weren't trying to be no one or nothing. We met Bobby McFerrin at a Jazz workshop. He said, "Scoopy ooby doobie, ra ba boo be annya diddly annya just don't stop." He said, "There's only one quesiton kids on my music test. Can you beat your, fear of sucess?" In my new yellow Ferrari on California's highway one. We drove therough the scenery. Laughing and we're laughing and were having and we're having us so much fun. The crome your hair the smell of the sea breeze. Ocean sparkles in the sun. I know, it's too good to be my scene. I should get back to work I'm daydream... I'm procrastinating. When fire flies, from fire's rise, and crimison climbs up to the scary sties, the only thing that keeps us here is Fear of Success. Yes oh yes. Ba bap. Its all in your attitude your beat bop ba.
2/2-2/7/2005 Music Free Download / Free Song: Cavity Song (1.2 MB mp3).
Lyrics for "The Cavity Song" by Xeno: Some people fear bacteria. That's fine with me. And I doubt you care that they were here before we.
Germs from outer space: They're raining still. Every day the Earth gains tons of weight ... Write your will! It's a theory from the ancient Greeks. NASA says true. Seeds, from outer space well, what's that to you? I'll tell you what, its those ... Cavities. They're a bacterial disease. Yeah, they're caused by streptococcus mutans but you can't kill them easily. Holes in your teeth, they will heal just like your bones. All you gotta do is stop all the damn white sugar tell the dentist to leave you alone. Yeah, root canals, they cause depression. They cost a lot, then they make you sick when they fill will junk ... "bomb Bomb BOMB!" Cavities. They will heal just like your bones. All you gotta do is stop all the damn white sugar tell the dentist to leave you alone. All you gotta do is stop all the sodas and the sugar tell the dentist to leave you alone.
2/2-2/7/2005 Music Free Download / Free Song: WarLord Zang (1.45 MB mp3).
Lyrics for "WarLord Zang" by Xeno: WarLord Zang was a very bad kid and he never felt bad about the things he did, no he never felt bad about the things he said probably because he had a mean pop.
And the WarLord's pop was a very bad pop going pop pop pop till it took him to the top and the WarLord's dad was a very bad dad, probably because HE had a mean pop. And you could blame it all back to the first bad dad 4.4 million years ago when an australopithecus monkey kicked his son in the head, son turned red, then he never felt bad about the things he did, no he never felt bad about the things he said, blamed it all on his pop. Cause blame is the name of the game that'll get you going "bomb! Bomb! BOMB!" Fear is the name of the game that'll turn your heart cold. Next time you're scared just think about how you're scaring someone else. Put your war on hold. WarLord Zang was a very bad kid and he never felt bad about the things he did, no he never felt bad about the things he said probably because he had a mean pop!
1/30-2/7/2005 Music Free Download / Free Song: Salvador Dali (2.66 MB mp3).
Lyrics for "Salvador Dali" by Xeno: There's gotta be a bit of better air to breathe, where the sun meets the water, where I wouldn't want to whisper. Got to get a little bit of better life for me, far from the city where I fell in love and missed (her).
It's all just an old dusty rolled up fanaticism begging me to apathize. It's all just a gold dust you sprinkle in the batter baby bake me in your apple thighs.
I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He used a dotted line. He caught every other fish that he wanted, wrote a sonnet on it, then he ate it. {Huma} why why why?
(short lead) You're charming all the firemen at your housewarming, with the fascinating way you're dancing happy in the embers. Every obstacle's an opportunity when you're living in the moment on the planet with the palm (trees). It's all just an old musty molding menagerie of men who want to see you sigh. Drag me to the loonie bin and throw me in I'd rather be myself than have to be just like them. I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He used a dotted line. He caught every other fish that he wanted, wrote a Sonnet on it, then he ate it.
(horn solo) Your soul mate can leave you, and it's about the worst you can go through. A soul mate can leave you. I hope this never happens to you. When I think how sad and full of folly my lonely life has been I tip my hat to Salvador Dali. 'Cause this smart cat went crazy to avoid love's pain, still I still have days I long to do the same. That's why I went fishing with Salvador Dali and he used a dotted line. { E caw, d caw. Hum. dum}
After wife and soulmate Gala's (top painting above) death, Dalí reportedly lost his own will to live. I write that he went crazy to avoid love's pain because "He deliberately dehydrated himself--possibly as a suicide attempt, possibly in an attempt to put himself into a state of suspended animation, as he had read that some microscopic animals could do." Pretty crazy. As Dali once said, "The only difference between myself and a madman is that I am not mad."
2/4/2005 Music / Computers How to Convert MP2 to MP3 without using WinAmp. Reason: MP2 files are larger than MP3's (A 2.68 MB MP2 file was 1.34 MB as an MP3) and I don't trust WinAmp. ( Also see this.) Anyway, the files are my own music. I'm not trying to "rip" CDs.
1. Copy MP2 file to hard disk.
2. Get RazorLame (1.1.5) front end to the LAME encoder.
3. Get the LAME encoder ( v.3.96.1 ) which already compiled here. ( LAME 3.96.1 CLI encoder fixed for .mp2 decoding 2004-11-04). I scanned this EXE for viruses on 2-6-05 and it was clean. I still got an error when decoding but the resulting MP3 file plays fine.Get spyware-free open source MP3 player Zinf (2.2.1). It does not output to MP3, but can create wave files.
1/31/2005 Music Doh! When planning my birthday fun this month I almost went to see our friend Jason Mraz in California, but ended up going to Maui. Now, today, I see that Jason Mraz will be performing in Maui! 02/13/05 Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Trip. I was just at that place a few weeks ago for a show.
Note to Jason: Take some time in Maui and do the submarine.
1/24/2005 Music (SacBee) Our music friend Jackie Green makes it big, signed by Verve/Forecast whose parent company is Universal Music, one of the world's largest music conglomerates. Go man, go all the way. Can't wait to see you on the Tonight Show. Amy Anne of Xenophilia went out with Jackie and our friend and former Xenophilia bass player Hence has been working with Jackie for years. What a trip. Congrats!
1/17/2005 Technology / Music I'm a big fan of Norah Jones, especially her song "Don't Know Why" because it is such a sad story beautifully sung. Did you know an artificial intelligence program called "HSS" predicted Jones' success despite industry skepticism?
"A computerized equivalent of the television programmer Juke Box Jury is known as Hit Song Science (HSS). It has been developed by a Spanish company, Polyphonic HMI, which used decades of experience developing artificial intelligence technology for the banking and telecoms industries to create a program that analysed the underlying mathematical patterns in music. It isolated and separated 20 aspects of song construction including melody, harmony, chord progression, beat, tempo and pitch and identifies and maps recurrent patterns in a song, before matching it against a database containing 30 years' worth of Billboard hit singles - 3.5m tunes in all. The program then accords the song a score, which registers, in effect, the likelihood of it being a chart success.
Ever since its initial trials, HSS has proven a hit with record labels who sent material to Polyphonic in hope of a second opinion. HSS confidently predicted Norah Jones's meteoric success (tipping no less than 10 songs on her debut album Come Away with Me) well in advance of her chart-topping appearances and in the face of an industry unconvinced she would have any commercial impact. HSS also picked out all the Maroon 5 hits, including both This Love and She Will be Loved. Other artists, including Anastacia, J-Lo and Robbie Williams are also rumoured to have asked for the hitmaker's analysis." - GuardianUK
Yes, you can test your own songs against this software, but it ain't cheap. $50 per song or $400 for 11 songs.
12/14/2004 Music / Earth / Blog. Remember when we saw eagles? No harm in keeping your head in the clouds. View this peaceful new short video from Jason Mraz.
12/17/2004 Music. Here's a neat little gift: Free MP3s of the Beatles Christmas Records from Si-Fi Hi-Fi.
11/18/2004 Music. (straight) John McCrea of CAKE really cracks me up. "We're pretty hate-filled," says a stern and now sitting McCrea. "That's the one thing not a lot of people understand. How much we hate them. We hate you. We fucking hate you. Not you personally, but the big white male." - chartattack
11/17/2004 Music. I spoke briefly to Gay-Yee Westeroff from Bond at the Crest show last night. Great show. I got some nice blurry pictures and video. They did a beautiful arrangement of the Beatle's Eleanor Rigby.
11/16/2004 Music. Seeing BOND tonight at the Crest!Bond, Tuesday, 11/16/04. 8:00PM PST Crest Theatre, Sacramento, CA USA. Tickets are still available on tickets.com. One very hot looking modern classical band. Some great band pics: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
9/22/04 Politics / Music. Cat Stevens is a guy whose early songs I love to play on guitar. He wrote about peace and love, right and wrong, the beauty of the earth and children playing ... and he has now been deported from the USA as a supporter of terrorists. (latest from google) The Department of Homeland Security won't say what evidence put this peace activist on a terrorist watch list.
"A government official said Wednesday that authorities had received information he may have had associations with potential terrorists. He was not accused of being a terrorist himself, however..." -htrib
What does it mean to "have associations" with "potential terrorists"? Perhaps it means to give money to certain groups? Cat Stevens does give money to Muslim charities. Of course, associations are tricky things. You knew Bush gave $27 million to a man "linked to several al Qaeda attacks", right? Source: CNN. That sounds like quite an "association" doesn't it? So ... we must deport Bush, right? Good.
Cat Stevens very recently denounced terrorism on his web site. He worked with David Bowie and Paul McCartney to donate to the families of the victimsof the 9-11 attacks. The deportation of this well known leader of peace gives bystanders like myself the impression that anyone who supports the "Peace Train" is an enemy of our current administration's absurd paranoid war mentality which feeds on its own fear. What makes Cat Stevens a threat to the US, but not to the UK? Is it the beard? This is nuts.
"The Department of Homeland Security has determined that the Peace Sign poses a credible threat to national security. Any American having seen a Peace Sign is considered contaminated by terrorists ideas and will be deported."
9/1/04 Blog. Ten days until I face my fear of flying to London and Paris! Thanks to the extremely heavy traffic even with premiere parking we didn't get to the concert in time to see Jason Mraz. I am currently nothing but amused by small disappointments. How good is a fun house without obstacles? Note: Leave two hours early from downtown Sacto to get to the Sleep Train Amphitheater. Fun part: Dave Mathews was great and I had a great time dancing. Great exercise! Plus, we almost got to visit the Jazon Mraz tour bus ... I think... but that didn't work out this time. Bought a Mraz Live CD/DVD and listened on the long drive home!
8/31/04 Music. I'm going to see Jason Mraz open for Dave Mathews tonight! Tix on the grass were about $50 each after all the fees.
UPDATE: Tix are now taken... off we go to the show... what will happen next on Xeno's big adventure? Tune in here (not here), friends and strangers ... and find out!
Dave Matthews Band
Sleep Train Amphitheater, Marysville, CA
Tue, Aug 31, 2004 07:00 PM
8/10/04 Music. If I purchase these picture from the Sacramento News and Review, they will remove the SNR watermarks. I just may do it. Isn't that last pic of Amy Anne sweet?!
8/19/04 Music. Samples of new CAKE CD are here:
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8/12/04 Music. Saw Van Halen last night at the Arco Arena. Great show. Eddie plays looking down and
he has long hair so you almost never see his face. There was a long solo from each band member. Eddie got the longest standing ovation I've ever seen. I kind of liked the nosebleed seats I had because you could see the crowd. You could barely see an empty seat. The place was packed. I liked the stuff they played from the first album best.
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Sammy kept laughing in the middle of the songs. I may do a small Van Halen tribute on acoustic 12-string when I play at Luna's this Friday night at 9 PM.
Van Halen songs remind me of that "Ah, yeah, beautiful girls!" attitude that David Lee Roth put out so well when I was a kid growing up. So, as luck would have it, I was able to bring along a complete knock out with which to rock out.
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8/19/04 Blog. Wed night, 7 PM to Midnight: Tryouts at American River College for Rocky Horror Picture Show musical.
6/14/04 Music. Vote on line in the Sacramento Area Music Awards. Xenophilia will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year in the Folk category. Thanks to everyone who voted for us in the past! Here are this year's nominees in the folk category:
Top to bottom, left to right: Holly Holt, An Angle, Jay Shaner, James Finch Jr., and Jackie Greene (not pictured because he didn't play the folk night with the other performers.) Folk out.
6/10/04 Music ( reuters) Ray Charles dies at 73. Thanks for the music Ray. This world will miss you.
6/10/04 Music Here's some great guitar work by Justin King. There is another video here. More samples here.
3/23/04 A new CAKE CD is a good thing. 4/6/04 Click here: CAKE
Evidence of more than one Paul McCartney?
10/23/03: It is now after 11 AM and that means Amy Anne ( of the band Xenophilia and the girl behind the infamous Amy Cam ) is now MARRIED! I almost can't believe it, but it's true. Here's wishing you many years of wedded bliss Amy.
10/22/03: Oldest known musical instrument, an Neaderthal flute made from a bone, used our modern 'Do Re Me' scale.
7/25/03: Only one in 10,000 Americans has perfect pitch ( Jason Mraz, Bobbie McFarren, etc.) Can a person learn to have perfect pitch? Can you learn to sing a perfect "A" note out of the blue any time day or night for the rest of your life? Can you learn to correctly name any note you hear? Many say yes, but you really should start young, when you are a kid still learning language. "In a study published in 1994, psychologist Daniel Levitin at the University of Oregon asked subjects to sing hit songs such as "Hotel California" from memory. Forty percent came within a semitone (the change from F to F-sharp, for instance) of the first pitch on the recording." In is also interesting that speakers of tonal languages like Vietnamese and Mandarin are much more accurate in pitch when reading the same list of words on different days. "In Mandarin, for instance, the word ma can mean "mother," "horse," "hemp," or "to scold," depending on its pitch." Some people learn languages later in life. Xeno, who has excellent relative pitch, wants to learn perfect pitch! More on the topic: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
CLICK THESE BANNERS TO SEE THE TOP 25 LOST SONGS:
You're kidding, right?
