music.
anchorhouse
song: anchorhouse
band: teen plant
music/lyrics/lead vox: me
notes: the narrator, dying, begins to conflate his companion, marianne, with the devil. antics ensue! this song is pretty awesome. initially a waltz, it goes into psychotic power-pop mode about halfway in, rattling around a five-chord progression so excellent that i have to share it with you:
Dm (#6 #7)
Ab (#4)
Eb
G (b6 b7)
Db
know it. love it. eat it, if possible.
seabeast
song: seabeast
band: teen plant
music/lyrics/lead vox: michael ramos
notes: just an utterly kick-ass prog-metal song from mike. i added the lyrics:
seabeast hates you /
he wants to eat you /
he doesn’t like you /
he is the seabeast; here comes the seabeast
we play this song even at open-mikes. especially at open-mikes. open-mikes where the other acts are all depressed singer-songwriters. we like to get up there and shred. it is sort of our favorite thing to do.
it’s my birthday i can do what i want
click to play it’s my birthday i can do what i want
song: it’s my birthday i can do what i want
band: teen plant
music/lyrics/lead vox: me
notes: this minute-long locrian-mode etude is usually played as an intro to “anchorhouse” and depicts a birthday gone horribly wrong. little need be said about it. if you play this song on loop sixty times, less than an hour will have elapsed. it will have been one of the most oddly satisfying hours of your life.
okay
song: okay
band: hurra kam rada
music/lyrics/lead vox: micah shapiro
notes: hurra kam rada was mostly a dance/party band, and this song is included as a demonstration as such. please take note of the extreme groove achieved by the rhythm section. it is because we were tight. we were spending all our time together back then, generally doing yoga and reading postwar french theorists aloud to each other. the eternal folly of youth! then came the day when geoff grew an ironic mustache, and we realized with a sudden pang the horrific turn our lives had taken.
little black cat
click to play little black cat
song: little black cat
band: hurra kam rada
music/lyrics/lead vox: me
note: the genre here is “monster rock,” as in the song “monster mash.” the addressee is a witch, and the lyrics are comfortingly dumb. every time i play it, it feels like i’m hitting on myself, a frankly bizarre feeling. at the end it morphs into this incredible parliament thing that could easily be eight or ten minutes long. allah be praised, it is not.
the kraken
song: the kraken
band: teen plant
music/lyrics/lead vox: me
notes: one of teen plant’s two songs about a mythical sea creature, this song starts out as a stadium rock anthem, then enters Party Mode, progressing ultimately to Extreme Party Mode. in this sense, it is like an encounter with the kraken itself: initially bewildering, ultimately an exploration of notions of familiarity and context. the Other has become the Self.
i play bass, write songs, and sing. my current band is called teen plant, and we are extremely good. we play a variety of styles, including progressive metal, country, reggae, and just straight-up rock and roll. please friend us on myspace or we will come to your house and make you eat a stapler. then we will gently depress your stomach until it has been stapled together.
seriously, we need more friends on myspace.
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