*disclaimer* I’ve enjoyed a holiday bottle of hard apple cider, so my writing and editing skills may be impaired.
Hi Everyone!
I feel a little bad because I haven’t uploaded anything in a while. My goal was something every week, but that was when I was unemployed. Now that I’m working, I haven’t been as blog-productive.
I realized this early in the week and sat down to record something, only to find my recording interface not working. I called the manufacturer, found that it was under warranty, and mailed it in. I’ve recorded some keyboard only music, but according to my wife it’s only meh.
So, in the spirit of Christmas I’ve decided to repost a youtube video that has been online for a couple of years. My friend Neal Jonas made a short film for a rendition of Deck the Halls that Luke Sweeney and I recorded. Luke’s weird, Neal’s weird, and I’m weird. Guess what? The video is really weird!!
A few years ago, a friend of mine copied some mp3s from his external hard drive to mine. Among the tracks were interviews and speeches from a variety of historical figures: Malcolm X, Kurt Vonnegut, Charles Manson. I haven’t listened to them all, but the ones I’ve heard are great. (Charles Manson was a little creepy.)
The song I’ve uploaded this week has clips from an interview with Jack Kerouac.
I have a wonderful recording setup these days. The time it takes to grab my microphone, open up Logic, and press record can happen in less than one minute.
Yesterday I was looking at something I’d written and decided to work it into a melody. I grabbed my guitar, played around for a few minutes, then recorded it real quick so I wouldn’t forget.
I didn’t intend to add other instruments and make a song out of it.
Put me in a cage
tell me I’m dead
I never want to see the sky again
I held onto the airplane
I thrashed against the side
My body was breaking
I drank gin and body of lies
and everybody died
I held a gun for the very first time
Fired 6 shots into the side of a barn
Felt blood flow and the feeling was warm
My body was breaking
If you’re wondering how a picture of me and Ryan Knight with our shirts off relates to this song, it doesn’t relate at all.
I just get the impression that blog posts without pictures are boring, so I like to scan my wife’s flickr account and link something.
This picture is of us in Krabi, Thailand, stinking it up in a hot, humid mosquito net watching Tropic Thunder on a netbook. That might sound cool, but that specific night ranks as one of the top five worst nights if my life. Illness + cramped, muggy quarters + clogged, filthy toilet + sleeplessness = Terrible.
I have mixed feelings about this song. I feel the same as the day I beat Marvel vs. Capcom on a single quarter; I feel proud of my accomplishment, but just as easily I feel embarrassed.
I won’t say much more. I’ll just admit to using auto-tune on my voice and a warranty card for the lyrics.
I have a couple songs in the works that I’m eager to share, but for this week I’m going to talk about someone else’s music.
Last night Kim and I went to the Laurelthirst Public House here in Portland to attend the CD release show for Kelly Blair Bauman’s new album, Gomorrah. I’m not versed in reviewing music or concerts; my breadth of musical knowledge and ability to describe sounds is unfortunately rather elementary. But I can say that the album sounds absolutely fantastic.
As far as using better words to describe music, it took me a long time to realize what angular guitars meant, and that word confused me at a time when my band was described as angular. At least I think it was. Music journalism is an art form all its own.
Four years ago, Kelly was kind enough to help me with recording a handful of songs. I showed up at his house once a week for about a month and a half. His schedule was always busier than mine, so I appreciated his willingness to share his time. Kelly never asked for anything in return; although I tried to make him happy by occasionally bringing snacks or beer.
The point is this: In addition to being a mind blowing musician and songwriter, Kelly Bauman is an awesome guy. His new album is beautiful and well worth your time. I’ll even attempt to describe it with musically descriptive words: floating, twangy, layered, atmospheric, and wonderful.
The album can be purchased for $10 at the record label’s website
Here are a few pictures from last night’s crowded event, courtesy of Kim:
Here’s a song that my wife Kim wrote a few years back. I don’t know what melody she had in mind, I found her lyrics and chord changes and recorded it before asking her. Actually, I’ll post exactly what I found:
C C
I dedicate all my nights
Am G
To call your name, to know your face
C C
So where are you? Where'd you go?
Am G
In my arms or in my
C C
Rotting soul
C C
I'll carry you and that August day
Am G
In the back of my mind and to my
C C
Swollen grave
Am G
Where all the children sing so
C C
Loud and brave
C C
Who's gonna care when we all die?
Am G
When you've got the bullet in your brain?
C C
Who's gonna stop and wonder why
Am G
No one is saying "I'm so happy
C C
To be alive"
C C
And after they all say goodbye
Am G
Who's gonna open the champagne and say
C C
"Cheers to life! Cheers to love!
Am G
Here's to all those things I've been
C C
dreaming of."
Am G
Yes, here's to those things I'm
C C
Dreaming of.
Am G
This is my ode to
C C
Life and love.
Am G
You can hear what my version sounds like, or you can record your own and send it to me. I show you mine, you show me yours.
Kim wrote another song, actually recorded herself singing it, then made a video for it. You can find it here on her blog.
Also, I didn’t get any response for the last song I posted. I know the lyric says, “find love in the graveyard,” but I swear it’s not about anything morbid or disgusting.
This is the first song of a new download category called, “Song Sketch / Works in Progress.” These will usually be simple recordings of songs I’ve just written or songs I’ve written in the last year and feel stuck with the progress. In the case of this song: I like what I have, but it doesn’t seem like a lot. Maybe you’ll agree, maybe you’ll think it’s fine.
When I first started playing shows acoustically in 2001, the only piece of merchandise I had was a 6-song cassette I labeled, Chris Miller tape #1. I don’t recall how many I sold. I think I ended up giving most of them away. When I ran out, I went without any merchandise at all.
Then I arrived for a show one night and a friend had put together a CD of my songs for me. He painted the discs green and created CD inserts with a blurry black & white photo of me playing guitar. He made about a dozen copies with songs from tape #1 as well as other recordings that were floating around. It was awesome. Travis Day, that was a cool thing to do.
It was also a good thing, because I realized this week that I don’t have most of those old songs on my computer anymore. Travis must have known that in 8 years, I’d be frantically reliving the nostalgia of my younger days by uploading musical recordings of myself to the Internet. Good foresight, Travis, I’m impressed.
I found my copy today and was surprised to hear songs I’d completely forgotten about.
To start with, I’ve uploaded one that highlights several of the qualities that truly defined my early acoustic recordings:
-Singing at the peak of my range, even though it hurt.
-Recording a song without tuning my guitar.
-Overdubbing a second instrument and then making it sound annoying by fading it in and out.
*additional note* The sticker in the photo above was made for me by Daniel Wolden. I found it in the CD insert. He deserves cool-credit along with Travis Day.
*additional additional note* The above song has the same chord progression and guitar riff as another song I used to play, Crowded and Cold, which I included on my 2005 CD. It’s something I do a lot. I get a musical idea and will write several similar songs that include that idea. I generally stick with the one I feel the best about and phase the others out. Crowded and Cold was kept, Nothing in Your Eyes was phased out.
Six years ago I agreed to play music at a Valentine’s Day party for friends. Chris Rider joined me with accompanying keyboard and we called ourselves Fanatical Friends. That was the only show we ever played. All the songs were stupid, but there was one that I really liked and later recorded on a Tascam 4-track. I never felt comfortable playing it again because it never seemed relevant; it was never Valentine’s Day. And for being a love song, it was pretty pessimistic about love.
every love turns out bad
every love turns out sick.
we don’t have to turn out that way.
we don’t have to turn out that way.
I love you so damn much…
won’t you be my Valentine?
Last year, I tried to record the song in a new way: I changed some of the lyrics, played it slower and made it more depressing. Today I was listening to both for the first time in over a year and I can’t tell if the newer one is any better. I’d be curious to hear what anyone else thinks. When I spend any decent amount of time on something I always lose perspective. Without a bandmate or reliable friend to tell me it’s a turd, I’ll keep on trying to polish it.
I just wrote the About Me section and I’m gonna repost it here as an introduction for what this blog is gonna be about.
“Hello Internet,
My name’s Chris Miller and here’s an idea I had: go into the closet and find forgotten, old band recordings to put on the Internet and put up recordings of songs I’ve never released as well as songs I’m recording today.
I guess it’s not that evolutionary of an idea, but here’s the part I’m excited about: I thought it would be fun to share both the polished final products of song writing as well as the rough, early sketches of songs.
One of the things I’ve been trying to do lately, as a creative exercise, is to write and record a song from nothing to final product in one short session. Sometimes these songs are terrible, but sometimes they turn out pretty cool. My hope is that I will post these session songs on a regular basis. I won’t post everything, I’ll be sure to leave the exceptionally terrible stuff on my hard drive.
One other thing. I’ve been writing and recording songs both alone and with bands for over 10 years, and most of the time I’m not always completely proud of the way things turned out. So, I’m here to acknowledge that some of the stuff on the site makes me cringe when I hear it. A specific example: my drumming for ‘my life cinema.’
The point is, I’m swallowing my pride and putting it out there, because it isn’t doing any good in my closet or on my hard drive.
Oh yeah, what is El Gato Guapo? I suppose I’m retiring the Green Hills Alone moniker and picking up a new one. Green Hills Alone was about writing songs on acoustic guitar in the simplest way possible. El Gato Guapo is about writing songs in as many different ways as I can. For those of you who didn’t take Spanish in 8th grade, El Gato Guapo means “The Handsome Cat.”"
SOOOOO,
To start things off I’ve uploaded 3 EPs with more to come in the near future.
I have the 1999 Boys of Summer master but it’s on cassette. I have to find a tape player with stereo outs so I can bring that demo into the digital world.
And for something that nobody’s really heard. I present a song I recorded on June 7th, 2009. I liked the music but had no lyrics so I quickly scanned my computer for something and apparently found some stream of consciousness prose about not feeling creative. Awful, right? Since the song was only 40 seconds I just repeated the block of lyrics a second time. Now you know how lazy I can be.
Thanks for checking this out. The site still needs a lot of work, but I was eager to share what I had so far. I also want to acknowledge the other musicians who share creative credit for a lot of this music. As the site develops I hope to share a little bit about each of these bands and also tell you what these other musicians are doing now.
Oh yeah, thanks to Kim for setting this up. She designed this site and is telling me how to update everything.
My name is Chris Miller, I'm currently living in Portland, OR with my wife and cat. This blog is here to share my music with anyone who wants it. Check the Downloads link below. I'll be adding content on a regular basis, so bookmark the page or subscribe via RSS or twitter.
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