alan rickman

this summer i spent a lot of time playing, learning, bitching, friending, freaking out, laughing, being uplifted, loving, eating, and drinking - not a lot of time writing songs.  but i have the feeling that now, with my creative well brimming with experience, i'll be able to churn out a few nuggets of inspired ditties.  it's a good time for a harvest.

there was one song that floated around my head this summer and i give it to you here.  i can only take partial credit for this one, as two gentlemen i was working with at the time (nick blaemire and damon daunno) were real collaborators on this little gem.

the recording captures the moment this tune was born.  it was at the bar, as many surprise conceptions begin i'm sure.  close your eyes, sit back, smell that special mix of beer, cigarettes, and cleaning supplies, and you'll be right there with us...

alan rickman

hagrid is my name and lily!

i have been slacking.  BUT it's because i've been focusing so much on my wizard rock side project!  jay and i had our first gig this past tuesday and oh boy what a delight 'twas :)  our full length album will be released in the coming weeks, but i wanted to post two tunes we've completed mastering.  they are fun.

hagrid is my name

lily!

these (and more!) are available for free download (for a limited time!) here: lilyandjames.bandcamp.com

tuesday is a saturday

this is a snippet of a song i started writing on tuesday.  sometimes my lyrics are pretty literal.  but yes, it's about how i fee like i'm living in a perpetual saturday these days, meaning i don't have the same time table as most of the working world.  i'm just making things up as i go along, i schedule my own days with projects as they come to me the meaning the days of the week once had for me (when i did work a 9-5) are now totally lost.  and i think that's cool.  also, because i don't wear contacts, i wear sunglasses that go over my glasses.  they're huge and i look like an elderly floridian but i love them.  also they're tinted a little so when i wear them i feel like the world is one of my grandparents' old home movies - and i really wanted to work that into a song somewhere.

tuesday is a saturday

lyrics:
looking at the world through my sepia tinted
over my glasses sunglasses
makes everything look like a home movie from 1960
where everyone is happy
and wearing too much eye makeup and polyester suits
and i feel good

i take a walk and stop to pick up a nice ice cream come
with sprinkles
i give the dude my two bones
and then i'm on my way
i can't be late for my one appointment of the day
to meet you and go for a walk
through the park

chorus:
tuesday is a saturday
yesterday was a saturday too
every day is a saturday
when i'm with you and we're making up the rules

cabbie landlord

my landlord drives a cab.  he lives in my building and sometimes i see said cab parked in our driveway.  this is a snippet of a song about how whenever i'm out late in the city, it is my dream that i'll flag him down, it'll be his last drive of the night and we'll look knowingly at each other and say "let's go home."

cabbie landlord

lyrics:
it's been a long hard night of drinking in a dive bar way downtown
me and my friends were like "let's do some shots of crown"
we got a little crazy, and things are hazy
i think it's close to three in the morning
and the bar is closing down

out in the misty muggy bright night lights of a city in heat
we open our mouths to laugh and to check each other's wine stained teeth
i feel unstoppable yet heavy
advil is poppable and ready
and i have bagel bites at home for a treat

cabbie landlord, won't you take me home
i don't wanna roam these streets no more
and i'm too poor to pay for my subway fare
cabbie landlord, if i could pick you out of the crowd
i'd hail you down
you know where i live
won't you take me there?

ghost in my bedroom and our lives are narrow

two new half baked tunes here to make up for my utter lack of posting last week.  silly me.

"ghost in my bedroom" is literally about this ghost appeared in my room when i was about 6.  he showed himself again when i was a junior in college, but that's a different story.  the house we lived in, or at least my room, i'm pretty sure was haunted - it was the only bedroom in the house with a door to the outside, and i had a lot of dreams (and waking experiences) involving ghosts, and this one in particular.  i was also always rearranging my furniture in the room, nothing ever felt quite settled to me...anyway, this is the beginning of a song inspired by those memories.

"our lives are narrow" is very much a work in progress.  not sure if i'm going to stick with this melody line, bass line, or even lyrics.  but there's a definite sentiment i'm trying to express and this bit of a song is my first attempt at it.  it's very much a page from my journal and is maybe a little too earnest and literal for my own taste, but i wanted to include it here to remind myself to follow through with the idea that sparked this ditty.


ghost in my bedroom

our lives are narrow

videos! samuel and we are not allowed

i'm playing a residency at googie's lounge, a little club in the lower east side, this month and i debuted two of my new songs last tuesday, april 13, 2010!  the videos are sort of dark and i sort of screw up, but we all know that's part of my charm :)

we are not allowed
samuel

samuel

my boyfriend sam has this book called "the songwriter's idea book" that i've been glancing at.  it basically makes use of your meyers-briggs personality type to give you tips on how you work creatively.  pretty interesting stuff.  as i was flipping through, one of the prompts/suggestions given is to write a song around someone's name.  yes, my boyfriend's name is samuel so that was sort of the impetus for this song, but he's not really the roamer that this song makes him out to be.  it just sort of flowed from my penny-pen that way.  again, this one is very scratchy and simple.  be kind!

Samuel