this song was written awhile ago for the opening credits to "Cat Attorney" a dramedy featuring goneill's cat. Unfortunately, the pilot was passed on by every major network, and even a few cable channels. yes, i was unemployed when i wrote this. also: had the flu. trivia: Lars Von Trier was supposedly interested in directing an episode.

posted by fishfucker at 9:50 PM PST - 3 comments

The dance craze that's sweeping the nation! Lyrics by languagehat.

posted by cortex at 8:57 PM PST - 34 comments

Why did you do that disappearing thing? Old song, not the best quality recording, but hopefully the cheerful mood will make up for it.

posted by micayetoca at 6:15 PM PST - 3 comments

A study on electronic vs. acoustic elements, with a slant towards elementary canon-type stylings. Written and recorded on one rainy night. Recently remastered for a 'best of 2002-2006' compilation.

posted by phylum sinter at 12:19 PM PST - 3 comments

Lounge jazz. That'll do.

posted by csimpkins at 5:12 AM PST - 4 comments

This is a cover of the Disney song, with me on two acoustic guitars. Recorded Dec. 4, 2000.

posted by adrian_h at 9:06 PM PST - 6 comments

Something my bro sent me from our glorious punker days in the early '80s. At the time I lived out in the country I thought it would be cool with the neighbors playing loud out there on the porch. Two days later my farmer nieghbors informed me that not only did the band suck but thier chickens quit laying eggs. Oops! (Jesus, stop it, STOP IT, damn that's bloody awful!)

posted by snsranch at 6:35 PM PST - 3 comments

a few of you might remember this one - i posted it to mefi music 4 years ago or so - some interesting wee noises in the drums and guitar still and no bad for a first time - so worth posting again.

posted by sgt.serenity at 3:11 PM PST - 3 comments

This is the last part of my project Music for uncomfortable films.

posted by xmutex at 2:16 PM PST - 2 comments

A song about songwriting.

posted by cortex at 8:20 AM PST - 7 comments

Elliott Smith cover for cortex's compilation.

posted by scottreynen at 6:37 PM PST - 3 comments

I worked on this with a friend a couple years ago. It's a bit shakey... but it's done. Slight delay at the beginning.

posted by csimpkins at 9:51 AM PST - 2 comments

More music from Chris Knott. He plays everything on this. I helped clean up the mix.

posted by csimpkins at 10:25 PM PST - 3 comments

This was inspired by Senator Barack Obama's courageous stance against 8th grade graduations, which I heard about on NPR's Wait Wait, Don't tell Me back in August of 2005.

posted by scottreynen at 3:42 PM PST - 2 comments

Ambient electronic.

posted by nthdegx at 4:37 AM PST - 3 comments

cover of an elliott smith song that cortex has been requesting anyone to do for a wedding ... i did this a few weeks ago, but didn't like the recording ... some remixing and better fx and ... well, it's the best i can do for now

posted by pyramid termite at 10:11 PM PST - 3 comments

Freebie from their Starsign : Tarantula album. See www.myspace.com/montanamusic

posted by Lojinx at 8:39 PM PST - 0 comments

Folkish rock that may just rip your face off. This is another song from my friend that I helped produce. Good stuff, I swear! *not responsible for said defacing...

posted by csimpkins at 3:24 PM PST - 1 comments

A song by my 16 year old brother.

posted by mrmojoflying at 2:50 PM PST - 1 comments

Daniel LeClair, a friend of mine, told me how much he adored his 3-year-old kid. How he understood everything the boy spoke, mumbled, shouted or coughed. The only thing he never understood, was how the boy could be in love with that purple dinosaur. I thought there was a song in there. Recorded with another friend, Uili Damage, who did the production and sang in it. So, I wrote the song, but Uili made it sound as it does here.

posted by micayetoca at 7:58 AM PST - 5 comments

Like the blast of a/c on a hot summer day: nasal, off key vocals, a chorus melody ripped off from "Barbie and the Rockers," and it is all over before you can decide that it is the worst thing you have ever heard in your life. Kisses!

posted by Quartermass at 4:50 PM PST - 3 comments

A dancey synthpop song about the romances of hipsters.

posted by clcapps at 3:38 PM PST - 0 comments

"The Masons bought 'U' the other day. Now there's a lotta words that we can't say." Let Steve and Chris from the Nude Dancer Explosion tell you about them. Plus a totally rockin' acoustic guitar solo. (Slightly NSFW... in a bad word kinda way)

posted by csimpkins at 1:57 PM PST - 1 comments

A friend told me all I ever write is ambient stuff (ie) and since she's right but I don't want to admit it, I wrote this. The title comes from a PBF comic I glanced at while trying to think of what to call it. What do you think? Should I stick to my day job?

posted by Savvas at 1:40 PM PST - 3 comments

Working draft of a song I'm engineering—written by friend and former bandmate Brian, who is on guitar and vocals, with keys added by moi. Feedback/criticism desirable. This is my first real effort to play producer/engineer to someone else's material.

posted by cortex at 10:55 AM PST - 12 comments

A misleading title. It's a two-voice piano piece with a diatonic melody in the treble and a bass line that clashes whenever it can. A reasonably challenging piece for the intermediate player. Also sounds like watered-down Wayne Horvitz.

posted by NemesisVex at 10:00 PM PST - 3 comments

"Please stop the asshattery, love jessamyn" Now there's a song that should be on MeFi Music.

posted by cortex at 5:52 PM PST - 41 comments

I know you never meant to bring it quite to this place And everybody watching can see it's a hell of a show I know you're only feeling like a mouse in a rat race But there's just one thing I think you ought to know If it's down to me or you, you got to go

posted by InfidelZombie at 10:56 PM PST - 5 comments

A happy song about new love and late summer nights. I'm not sure that the arrangement for this is done, really, but I've been leaving it alone for a while now. Features keyboards, bass, drums, slide guitar and vocals.

posted by edlundart at 10:20 PM PST - 5 comments

This is a song I did in 1995 with my band Verge on the album Little Idiot. This recording is entirely the product of the studio, but we would play it live too. (We'd drag out a lot of gear that would barely function at times to do just that...) We made this recording in the basement of my loft (at the time, sigh) in Williamsburg sometime between 1993 and 1995, sequencing it on a Mac IIci computer with no sampling or digital audio though we did record onto a digital 8-track tape recorder (remember "tape"?) so the guitar solos and voice and synth and things are pretty well as they occurred.

posted by lupus_yonderboy at 6:58 PM PST - 3 comments

sweet sampling, sweet manipulation, sweet field recordings, sweet tune, sweet jesus.

posted by Mach3avelli at 6:13 PM PST - 2 comments

I actually have a red dog and he gives me the blues sometimes. (Sorry canine won't have anything to do with me unless I have a tennis ball or a steak in my hands.) Can ya guess the tuning? personanongrata can! I don't know what the deal is but this sounds much slower than what was recorded.

posted by snsranch at 8:04 PM PST - 2 comments

Alright. I used to think using GarageBand (and its loops) to make songs was "cheating". Then I started to use it. It's amazing how fun and easy it is, and you can really create some great sounding music. Here is my first downtempo song, entitled "Down with the Tempo". Enjoy!

posted by RockBandit at 3:15 AM PST - 3 comments

A little synthesizer track I've been working on. E-lec-tron-ic, yeah!

posted by chasing at 12:15 AM PST - 2 comments

I wanted to write a song with only (or mostly) four chords, and I ended up with something about the inaccuracies of memory.

posted by NemesisVex at 8:01 AM PST - 4 comments

Another acoustic living room demo, same lineup as last one. This is an original, inspired by the way the my timing seemed to be so screwed up back in my single days. I'd get a crush on someone who didn't know I existed. Then, sometime later, they'd be interested in me... but I was already over them. Someday I want to record this with a cello in the arrangement.

posted by litlnemo at 6:39 AM PST - 2 comments

I'm singing and playing the Reggie Lucas-written hit off Madonna's first album, but I just threw in George Harrison's wistfully lilting lick on the Beatles' "Revolver" classic for fun.

posted by allaboutgeorge at 12:11 AM PST - 4 comments

So, anyway, this song is based on a quote in this article. Twas made in the past hour and a half, upon the inspiration of cortex's breaking-news-story related songs. And it's short as hell. Which is somewhat oxymoronical, depending on your viewpoint of such things.

posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:58 PM PST - 2 comments

Whirring, humming, clicking, wheezing dark ambient/glitch, from my new album, Unseen.

posted by Foosnark at 10:02 AM PST - 0 comments

Pop rock recap of the recent AOL search snafu.

posted by cortex at 9:18 AM PST - 6 comments

Strong on feedback and complex drum patterns in quite the krauty way. Dissolves in a beautiful crystalline feedback ending.

posted by Herr Fahrstuhl at 7:21 AM PST - 0 comments

Trip hop or something. At its core it is still a singer/songwriter sort of deal, but this features -- in addition to regular vocals -- opera samples, moaning girls, reversed strings, synth bass, subtle sustained guitar feedback, scratching, acoustic slide guitar, tambourine, crumbly noises, and whatever else. Includes the F-word right at the start, if that concerns anyone.

posted by edlundart at 10:42 PM PST - 2 comments

A song written with my friend Will (who does the main singing, me the secondary) for a movie another friend is making about two guys going after the same girl.

posted by ORthey at 6:43 PM PST - 2 comments

Can't have a day with only one post to MuFi! This is from the 48 Hour Project; I spent two days in January holed up writing and recording an EPs-worth of songs that would later become the foundation for my current band. It was cold and tiring and fun...

posted by verysleeping at 2:50 PM PST - 3 comments

Creepy, moody synthballad about geopolitical nuclear politics, circa March 2006.

posted by cortex at 12:26 PM PST - 4 comments

I usually only sing on tracks when it's necessary to fulfill the requirements of a compilation, as was the case with this medley from Flogging a Dead Cow, the Dead Milkmen tribute album. Another "quality" Hence The Name product.

posted by Durhey at 9:52 PM PST - 3 comments

Played by my Grandpa. Super Crap recording and he was a bit out of practice, but this is real old timey music from long ago in Western Appalachia. Please overlook the pops and cracks, this is the real deal.

posted by snsranch at 7:54 PM PST - 5 comments

Samsara: The eternal cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth. A song from my very first band in 1999. I played keys, synths and added some backup vocals at the end. It was also my first experiment with home recording. Considering we only used a couple of SM57's, a mixer from the 80's and a PC... I think it turned out pretty good!

posted by csimpkins at 6:47 PM PST - 1 comments

Ambient haunting seascape type piece. It's nice in an "I'm going to throw myself off the top of this cliff" type of way.

posted by TwoWordReview at 10:03 AM PST - 0 comments

A chunkier, clunkier version of Ohming with a coolcat intro thrown in, just for laughs. Hey, why not?

posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:11 AM PST - 0 comments

Some deep, plodding minimalist electronica. Another tracking effort. Even so, I don't think I constrained myself enough - I could probably leave some more beats out...

posted by Jimbob at 7:10 AM PST - 1 comments

A little muted trumpet, a little harp, a little harmonies and a lot of existential angst

posted by kellykessler at 8:31 PM PST - 4 comments

So, here's the deal. I'm very drunk, and I've just cpme bacl frp, hosting a party at my girlfriend;s house. And I want to post a song to you humans. Amd. tjpigj ot5 ,au b3e and p;d spmg. I dn't feee; it is not wprth menntionings. It is called "Qipheyo". And I don't know what that word means. It's a little reggae, a little mariachi, and a little drum 'n bass. And I'm a lot drunk.

posted by The Great Big Mulp at 7:30 PM PST - 18 comments

Easy going, pop rockin' goodness. Like many folks posting here, this is one of my old band's songs. This one in particular was written by my good friend (and then bandmate) Chris Knott - who recently moved to NYC with his band, Commas.

posted by csimpkins at 6:40 PM PST - 1 comments

As I'm still in learning/practice mode, here's something I recorded to help me practice banjo, harmonica and jew's harp. Anyone interested in bluegrass/old-timey (or whatever) music feel free to add tracks to this and post them. This is such an open-ended practice piece that it could really go anywhere, so be my guest to use it anyway you please.

posted by snsranch at 6:28 PM PST - 6 comments

the grand finale of the circus ... headphones suggested ... 12 of 12

posted by pyramid termite at 5:08 PM PST - 0 comments

Sometimes breaks, samples and dirty synths are reason enough. Lestrade.

posted by nthdegx at 3:56 PM PST - 2 comments

and why not? ... 11 of 12

posted by pyramid termite at 2:52 PM PST - 1 comments

Been listening to a lot of great demos and rough tracks here lately, which has given me the courage to post one of my early attempts at home recording, just putting a melody over some chords.

posted by InfidelZombie at 10:21 AM PST - 2 comments

Hey all. This is my band out in Philly, we're called the BUICKS. The band has been together for quite a while but this is our first recording with our new label Teletone Records. It's a mish mash of blues, soul, r&b etc....philly style. We call it Americana for lack of a better word. Anyway, this is one of the slow songs featured on the cd. Hope you all enjoy.

posted by j.p. Hung at 8:33 AM PST - 2 comments

Some nasty noise, integrating samples composed from segments of executable files, spectral synthesis, and other bad sounding stuff.

posted by Jimbob at 6:12 AM PST - 4 comments

More low quality, drunken Bluegrass with The Failsworth Pilgrims. Recorded the same night we recorded Diamond Joe - only slightly more sober. We always opened our shows with this one because it lends itself to soundchecking so well. Another rough mix, although we did go back later (drunker) and add the super-camp backing vocals

posted by Jofus at 4:02 AM PST - 7 comments

Acoustic cover, me and Chris Otto sharing vocals. Living room demo on Tascam 4-track tape deck, recorded around 8 years ago or so. A song I've always loved to sing. Sorry the last couple of seconds are clipped off; I'm not sure why.

posted by litlnemo at 5:57 PM PST - 5 comments

This is a Bad Brains cover from our collection of covers called Our History is Your Kitsch. Go ahead and download the whole album because it's free as the wind.

posted by melissa may at 9:04 PM PST - 4 comments

I think this'll be my last music post for a while, until I get my shit together, as it were. Thought I'd round it off at a nice even 10. And, I thought it fitting to post this super-old song, ('98 or '99), which was my first attempt at "multitrack hard disk recording," with one Sure SM58 mic, some crappy Mac software on an old biege G3, handclaps and a LittleTikes™ toy piano. I used what I had. Way back when, I posted it on sites like the old mp3.com and it got some nice feedback which felt awesome and immediate and kind of weird and new. After a while I got sort of jaded with all the online music site stuff because it was clearly becoming the "So You Think You Can Dance" of the Internet, at the time. Posting stuff recently to music.metafilter has rekindled a lot of that fun, immediate kind of vibe for me, so I thought this was a good way to complete the circle. At the time I called this "a happy song about sad people," which I guess it is. It was written after leaving a shitty job. It sounds kind of corny and twee now, and the recording quality is pretty shite, but it was sincere at the time. Cheers everyone. In preview this seems like way too much information. Oh well.

posted by chococat at 7:24 PM PST - 17 comments

A gentle work of cascading, synthetic glitch

posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:44 PM PST - 2 comments

i live in a country where the flags fly at half-mast ... 10 of 12

posted by pyramid termite at 9:23 AM PST - 0 comments

OK, I didn't write or record this; my brother did. But I did want to share it, and it's OK with him. Anyway, it's, uh, a song with a hook.

posted by bricoleur at 3:18 PM PST - 2 comments

I've been awake for days and the only option was to write some music. Some ambient electronica to help you (and me) sleep. (The title refers to this story.)

posted by Savvas at 11:47 AM PST - 3 comments

Audio collage of some of the pieces of a live recording that landed on the cutting room floor. From my old band's final show.

posted by cortex at 10:11 AM PST - 5 comments

I went looking for some Creative Commons acapellas to muck around with, and this is the result - something a bit trip-hop and soulful, based on this vocal performance from Diane Jessurun. I'm not too unhappy with the result. CC2006.

posted by Jimbob at 4:34 AM PST - 3 comments