I like Space. I find the whole thing fascinating. Anyone who has enjoyed Star ‘x’ (where ‘x’ is could be Wars, Trek, or Lord), probably likes Space too, at least a little. Douglas Adams described Space best as “really big”, and Carl Sagan revelled in the fact we’d started to explore it. But when you compare how much Space we know there is against how much we’ve explored, it’s not even a contest. Space is too big. Similarly, when you compare how much I know about Space against how much I don’t, ignorance wins. I like Space, but I don’t know her personally.

Space and I are casual acquaintances.

There is one thing I found out about Space once, I can’t remember how. Something from a half-remembered conversation whilst glancing at Space across a crowded lounge at a house party in South Auckland, probably. It’s one of those facts that makes you go “huh. cool.” and then promptly disappears into the back of your mind like it’s being sucked into a Black Hole. But the fact waited, biding it’s time until it could use this song as a fuel source and propell itself onto a collision course with my chest.

The Song(s)
Song: Redshift
Artist: Darwin Deez
Album: Songs for Imaginative People - 2013 - Lucky Number
Method of discovery: Spotify Discover

Research: Darwin Deez is the name of The Band. Darwin Smith is the name of The Man. The Band is from New York City. The Man is from North Carolina. Darwin, the Australian city, does not feature further in this article. The self titled debut album was released in 2010 and initially gained attention in the UK. The band was featured on NME’s “Cool List” in the same year. Songs for Imaginative People was released in 2013. Between the two albums The Man also mixed together a full rap album from sampling 1971’s Gene Wilder lead “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” called ‘Wonky Beats’. Link Below.

Redshift’s lyrics talk of a breaking relationship using the metaphors and language of space and some more general scientific terms. The guitar during the verse orbits the binary system of IV6 and V6, serving to keep the song in motion and without resolution. It’s only when the ‘Big Bang’ of the chorus hits that we hear the solid I, IV & V carry the lines. But The Man, or The Band, made the decision to utilise the dual wormholes, iii & vi to navigate between the more stable (read: Major) chords.

Personal thoughts: This song was an Asteroid that I never saw coming. I initially was turned off by the 90’s modem-esque beginning. But the first lines hooked me with galaxies and science, prepped me just right with that small pause before the chorus. ‘Was there a big …’ Bang. Suddenly a wall of sound. The music echoes the lyrics. It also cleverly puts you into the protagonist shoes, after all who hasn’t looked back on a break-up and been able to now realise what the signs were. “How could you miss something so obvious?” But the real heartache is in the next line.

‘Did some explosion cause a Redshift?’

Redsfiht, or Redshift when I can type it correctly, is a phenomenon where light waves move to the red end of the visible spectrum when you observe an object which is either further away, or is moving further away. Please, correct my science if I’ve gotten it wrong. If the distance between our Sun and Earth was to increase, the Sun would ‘shift’ to the red end of light with that increase.

‘I would try anything this side of the milkyway,
To figure out why in the world you’re drifting away’

“HEADLINE: Man’s heart sniped by Asteroid.”
Who hurt you, Darwin? Do you need a hug? If anyone see’s Darwin from 2013, hug him.

Give it a go: If you are picked up by songs that make you feel down

Give it a miss: If there’s already too much science in your indie.

[links]
Websites: DarwinDeez.com, Wonky Beats
Spotify: Redshift
Wikipedia: Redshift, Darwin Deez

It was the first album I’d ever owned. A gift from my best friend because I said I’d liked one of the music videos I saw on the TV once. It was computer animated and looked awesome, and it broke my tiny country mind in the late 90s. Wailing synths and chugging electric guitars. The song spoke about video games and the sometimes inherent frustration they could lead to. The video included a freeze frame of Beelzebub, the Prince of Darkness as “Lucy”, leading a Giraffe, a Penguin, a Monkey and a Rabbit over a rainbow bridge.

It immediately spoke to my sensibilities.

If I owned an album before, it has been firmly usurped from my mind. Having three older brothers, this one was the first I recall being purely mine. There were many swears on the record, a fact which I hid from my deeply Anglican parents. If discovered, they might have taken it away, which made the album even more precious. I also felt a sort of second hand buyer’s remorse, so I endeavoured to enjoy every song as much as I could. This was difficult when it came to the titular track half way through the record. But I’m going to focus on the songs that bookend the album …

The Song(s)
Song: “I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff” & “Just Another Beautiful Story”
Artist: Regurgitator
Album: UNIT - 1997 - Eastwest
Method of discovery: Gifted to me

Research:
Unit is the second album from Regurgitator, an amalgam of Alternative Rock, Electronica and Electropop, with other albums swinging around in Punk, Grunge, Alt-Hip-Hop and Rap-Rock. It won five ARIA awards the in 1998, including Best Album and Best Cover Art and and ended up going Triple Platinum in its homeland of Australia. It has featured in the 2010 book ‘100 best Australian Albums’, and in 2011 Triple J ranked it 10th in a similar list of their own.
”[…]Stuff” hangs around the IV and V, adding to the ethereal vocals and plead of the singer to get some sort of resolution, with the I coming in with the chorus, a simple, repetitive line which builds in a gradual crescendo to end the song.
”Just Another Beautiful Story” is another beast entirely, beginning with a lone Synth line, and then into another synth that for evokes more of a steam-machine vibe and always makes me loose the beat. The drums, bass and guitar make their entrances lightly, some orchestral strings in the background of the second verse, and then, the Trumpet solo over a counter melodic Trombone. Back to a rocky chorus and a re-entry of the persistent synth line which carries the song into the silent space of the end of the album. It’s a moving song that moves from the typical I-IV-V-vi Chords, navigates the less common III and bVII and throws in the pop-obtuse #V-Augmented. Not to mention the modulation up a half step for the solo and back for the final chorus. What even it this song?!

Personal thoughts:
The fact that the opener to a second album, vastly different in sonic quality to the first, is named “I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff” is perfect. It both acknowledges that the soundscape will be different, and pre-empts inevitable fan commentary of the same nature. It’s a clever way to telegraph to listeners that the rest of the album is deliberate, and not a case of the band ‘losing their mojo’ or ‘selling out’ per se. It’s a statement that I feel has continued to pay dividends for all future albums, because as a fan I’m always excited to see what new, or familiar, direction the band has chosen to go this time.

“Just Another Beautiful Story” has a special meaning all to itself. It was full of the same simplistic observation of some of the other songs. The lyrics put in stark terms the perspective that “there ain’t no god”, and if anything, I was more afraid of my parents finding this than the swears. It outlines that it wouldn’t matter if we were to “…all die away…”, but that it’ll be okay if “…you’re holding my hand…” . The crux of the song for me is how I’ve always heard the second verse

“All that I am is a brain in a body,
Live till I die and then rot away, it’s a beautiful story”

(Despite half of the lyrics websites saying run instead of rot). Its bleak. Sure. But for me it has always been a liberating perspective: make the most of your time, and the most of the people around you. While you have time.

Give it a go: If you feel like something strange, or enjoy saying you are listening to award-winning albums

Give it a miss: If you don’t like swears, electronica, or grunge

[links]
Spotify: I Like your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff, Just Another Beautiful Story
Wikipedia : Regurgitator, Unit Album
Band Website: Regurgitator
Similar Article: Polyester Genius

I liked him right away, but discovered Jonathan Coulton slowly. Probably at about the same rate as this 'weekly' blog. I could give a few reasons/excuses for such a time gap, but the fairest explanation is that I had a goal without a plan. Please excuse me for requiring further growth.

I’m fond of telling people I was a fan of Jonathan Coulton before I knew I was. But the most straightforward thing to do is present a timeline. First there was Portal (the Videogame), and at the end of it there’s a beautifully crafted song ‘Still Alive’ from the perspective of the antogonist of the game: GLaDOS. I loved that song. It was quirky and clever. Next came an animated TV Series about Game Programmers in the eighties called ‘Code Monkeys”. The theme was an eponymous ditty about a disillusioned game programmer, but only in writing this did I learn the show was named after the theme.

After singin’ the theme-tune, and jammin’ to the theme-tune I looked for some chords online and through an internet rabbit hole discovered that both of these songs were written by the same guy, but also that I really enjoyed the rest of his repertoire. I could go on about many of his songs at length, the year long project he did to write a song a week, his annual music show/cruise, that one song that seems really weird until you figure out (or read an article explaining ) that it’s meant to be Leonard Nimoy addressing Bigfoot.

Seriously.

But I’d like to present just one song that encapsulates the perfect balance that helped to inspire the name of my own album ‘Sweet, Sad and Silly’.

The Song
Song: The Future Soon
Artist: Jonathan Coulton
Album: Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow (EP) - 2004 - Self Published (I think)
Method of discovery: A Series of Tubes

Research: I can find little written on the actual composition of the song, but can say that it featured on the Lecture series ‘Little Gray Books’ in early 2003. From there Coulton was picked up to perform that song, and following an ethusiastic reception, several more songs for Pop!Tech 2003.

It’s now a staple of Coulton’s performances, and often signals the start of his set when he performs with Paul and Storm. The lyrics revolve around a young boy escaping the harsh realities of his unrequited love by fantasising about how powerful and influential he’ll be in the future, kind of an extended “Well you just wait, one day I'll be King of England”. And there are enough interesting chords in the verses for the chorus to rely on a I-V-vi-IV for the first bit and a nice ascending bassline for the second (although I play it descending). There’s even a sneaky modulation-and-back-again in the Bridge, which makes for a really interesting tonal shift to support the lyrics.

Personal thoughts: It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction. I’m just in love with this song. The Chorus perfectly walks the tightrope between Sweet and Sad, where a boy has such innocent confidence in his future potential he’ll even be able to mechanically correct his awkward humanity. The silly is more of a slow burn, developing through the narrative of an unintended robotic uprising, and lines with redundancies like “Building inventions in my space lab in space”.

It’s one of my go-to riffs when I pick up a guitar to check if it needs tuning, and I often end up playing the whole song as a result. Jonathan keeps the pace up in the song until the very end, strumming throughout, but I like performing a more theatrical version, pausing for Laura’s new look, slowing right down and finger-picking the final chorus. The 12-year old in me is angry, and the song is a heated response to the enciting incident, but by the end it’s more of a hope against his fading anger. But it’s ok, it’s gonna be the future soon.

Give it a go: If you like catchy tunes and songs with character development

Give it a miss: If you don’t enjoy Robots, Humour, or Puppies. There are no puppies in the song, but if you don’t like the first two you’re basically heartless.

[links]
Wikipedia: Jonathan Coulton, Code Monkeys
Websites: Jonathan Coulton.com,
Research Materials: JoCoPedia/TheFutureSoon

Its an almost gladitorial battle: the feeling I should blog regularly brandishing a spear and shield, versus my reluctance to post needlessly or without value proferring a net and trident. Social media and constant engagement are necessary evils these days, because if you arent continually shouting through the digital void at people then how can you remain relevant?

Well here is my attempt at balance; a truce between the gladiators.  Every Tuesday, I'll post less than 1,000 words about a song or two. Regular, short, and plenty of material to draw from. It might even add value if you discover some new songs or artists. Should be easy, right?

The Song(s)
Song: 'Soldier' & 'Hey! Sandy'
Artist: Harvey Andrews
Album: Writer of Songs - 1972 - Cube Records
Method of discovery: A single in my parents vinyl collection - ‘Soldier’ = side A.

Research: Both songs are inspired by death, which for the first one of these, is a somewhat morbid beginning.
‘Soldier’ was inspired by the sacrifice of British Sergeant Michael Willetts during the Northern Island Conflict, a.k.a. The Troubles. The overly simplistic version is that the Irish couldn’t agree on whether or not to be one Island or two Irelands. Willetts was among the first British Soldiers to die when a suitcase-bomb was thrown into the police station where he and his squad were placed. He ran toward the bomb and used his body to shield two adults and two children from the blast, which killed him.
’Hey! Sandy’ was penned to address the Kent State Shooting, and most directly Sandra Scheuer, a University student who was struck dead by a bullet aimed for the nearby protesters. Members of the Ohio National Guard fired sixty-seven rounds over thirteen seconds, killing four and injuring nine. The reason for the shots are unclear. This incident, along with others like it eventually fuelled further protests, student strikes, and even a regular rememberance by Sandra’s sorority.

Personal thoughts: When I was 5 I had memorised 'The Soldier' by playing it repetitively, which takes a lot of patience for a 5 year old operating a record player and any parents nearby (sorry Ma, sorry Pa). When I was 11 I entered a talent competition and won a jigsaw of an elephant by singing it acapella (I hadn't learnt guitar yet). When I worked at foodtown as a teen I sang this to keep sane while stacking yet another box of bananas.

It’s fair to say that ‘Soldier' is one of my all time favourite songs, but also the first favourite I can remember, which is why I saw fit to start here.

Sometime bewteen the Elephant and Bananas, I turned over the record with curious intent.  Although I and subsequently everyone else at home had heard it before, I really listened to 'Hey! Sandy' for the first time. I felt like I'd moved a precious artifact to discover another one beneath it. Now I had two songs to love.

The melody and story of 'Soldier' captured me as a kid, and the more I’ve grown the more I understand the lyrics. Its a typical folksy tune and uses standard I-IV-V chords to keep the song jangling along. ‘Hey! Sandy’ on the other hand begins with a quavery note sustained on a Double-Bass (I think) and gradually introduces Vocals, Guitar, Electric Guitar, and even a Bodhran (again, I think. It could be a ‘standard’ drum). With the inclusion of the ii chord, it sounds a bit darker, despite the similar subject matter.

Overall I think that these two songs helped to form a lot of my interest in Lyrics in particular. But at this stage, I feel I’m at least a little biased.

Give it a go: If you like folksy tunes, or have an interest in lyrics

Give it a miss: If you don’t find value in reflecting on politically-charged-death, or death-charged-politics

[links]
’Soldier’ on Spotify, Wikipedia. Michael Willetts. The Troubles.
’Hey! Sandy’ on Spotify, Sandra Lee Scheuer and Kent State Shootings on Wikipedia.
Harvey Andrews on Wikipedia

View fullsize

I honestly can't remember a time without music. Photo by Klass Photography

Welcome to GeoffRoweMusic.com. It's about Geoff Rowe, and most directly, his Music. But you already knew that. So I figured this first post should be what you might not know about him, aside from my ability to switch perspective in the middle of his sentences. We are, after all, the same person.

I grew up on a small hobby farm near the Waikato River in New Zealand. Our family's home and annual road trips were full of singing, and being the youngest of four brothers I got the high parts. I honestly can't remember a time without music. So eventually I got into playing, first Piano, then Guitar, then dabbling in other instruments.

Then I began writing poetry, and it wasn't long until poems became lyrics. Eventually I began performing my music, and after high school decided to study Diplomas in Music Performance and Event Management.

If you've never listened to my songs before, click here! I've been described as singer/songwriter, lyrical pop/rock/folk. People who've heard my songs usually recommend "Tatooine". Let me know what you think of that, and the website.

If you'd like to get in touch, please do so!