Hey people. This is just a little update on what I'll be up to during the last weeks of summer.
1) recording the Final 4 original songs for Mike's F'd Up Journey (the band, not the self-titled album)
2) possibly recording some video footage of me playing some of my recent music as well as a few cover songs.
3) OK, this is related to 1), but I'll be recording and releasing my final EP "Love, Death, Loss and Redemption". It'll consist of 4 songs, one for each theme in the title. I've already recorded the"Love" song, it's dedicated to thewoman who is the only person I've ever loved unconditionally. It's the most emotional song I've ever written, if not the only emotional song I've ever written that wasn't based on anger or depression. The other songs include a song about my great-grandfather and a song about myopia as well as a final song.
That's pretty much it. Oh, in case you were wondering:
Mike's F'd Up Journey Discography:
1) Self-titled: (2007-2008 ) includes my early songs like "Byzantium", "Cockroach Colored Wings", "Slate's Theme" and "I Don't Wanna Be the Same". Besides these singles, this, the longest of my albums, has a lot of short instrumentals as well as some of my early experimentation songs like "gonna listen to some pink floyd" which was inspired by Alvin Lucier's"I am sitting in a room". The theme of the album is split identity. Brick and Slate are two characters reflecting different emotional psychological states. Brick is the romantic, creative persona, but he is unfocused. This is reflected in "Brick's Theme" which is erratic and unpredictable. Slate is the nihilistic, destructive persona who is incredibly single minded on revenge. The two personas vie for dominance and the affection of a third character in this drama, simply titled "Her", who appearsmusically throughout the albumin "Her Theme" parts 1-3 as well as being mentioned in "Cockroach colored wings" and "I Don't Wanna Be the Same", with a hint of scorn. The album climaxes with "Slate Man" in which Slate finally manages to destroy Brick. This results in a figurative suicide of the consciousness since it turns out that Brick and Slate are both essentially the same person.
2) The Walrus Chronicles: (2008-2009) is both a collection of songs originally intended for the first album as well as new material. Songs like "I Told You", "Walrus intro" and the single "Juiced Walrus" were originally in the set list for the first album, and were in fact recorded earlier than some of the songs on the first album. This album is political in nature as it tackles issues of culture and identity in 21st century America and beyond. Themes such as war, corruption, hypocrisy and fear pop up. "I Don't Know What to Do" questions whether the shift post 2001 were for the better or whether they sacrificed the very ideals our nation once stood for. This is elaborated more in "Shadows on the Wall", which gets its title from the allegory of the cave. "Nothing Good On TV", the albums only moment of levity, pokes fun at the ridiculous trends in recent American television, most effective when accompanied by its music video. "Juiced Walrus" takes a broader look at the American psyche and delves into music politics, the internet and other social issues. The music video mixes comedy and tragedy in a way that reflects how the media does so on a regular basis. The Walrus motif is meant as a metaphor for the public that chooses not to be aware of what's going on in their own country. The album concludes with the Doors inspired "The Walrus Marches On".
3) Intergeddon: (2009) is not a traditional album. Many of the tracks are spoken word or sung without musical accompaniment. The album is not devoid of songs however. "Virus", "Electronic Mail", and "All Alone" are all acoustic songs. The album covers the negative aspects of the internet through the eyes of various personas and characters that don't reflect the author himself (except perhaps on the lament of "All Alone"). Topics include identity theft "phishing for identity", the unreliability of user based wikis "Wikiculture" and the dehumanizing effects of internet pr0n "Pr0n Song" (the albums apocalyptic finale that lives up the promise of Armageddon in the album's title). Besides the final track, none of the 10 tracks are outside of the 1-3 minute range.
4) Love, Death, Loss & Redemption (2009) is a work in progress.
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