A while back I got this gig to make songs out of educational lyrics. I loved the challenge and totally obsessed over every one. Here are the first two songs I produced for Ignite! Learning: the funk-rock multiplication tables of “Fact Families” and the hip-hop geometry of “Angles.” Special thanks to Alex Sarabia‘s guitars on the first and DJ Bigface‘s turntable logic on the second.
[audio:https://jasonmolin.net/wp-content/uploads/podpress/jcast8.mp3][display_podcast]
I stopped playing bars and coffee shops last year opting this year to devote my music time to the podcast and working on a better model for performing. I’d noticed secret little stages around town and around my neighborhood, along Blunn creek where I take my dog Townes for a walk most days. So as the coolness of the spring dissipated, while the creek was flowing, I invited people on a tour of my favorite natural amphitheaters, playing a few songs acoustically at each spot. Knowing I wanted to be able to share the experience with all my friends around the country and world, I got some footage of it, along with DJ Bigface’s fantastic photographs!
You can hear the creek flowing right in front of me.
Al Franken is running for senate and he’s conscripted his grade-school teacher, Mrs. Molin, to attest for him in this commercial:
Lib shared some hilarious song stuff with me today:
First, The Perfect Song, by Carrie Brownstien & Fred Armisen.
Next, Two Minutes and 42 Seconds in Heaven, a super-sassy and highly logical argument for the length of the perfect song. I love the writer’s ‘about’ blurb:
Joshua Allen is a complex and exciting young man. He is a hard worker and always gives 110 percent. He is a people-person unless that person is a crab and not pulling their weight for the team. If enthusiasm and get-up-and-go are drugs, then he’s a hardcore drug addict. He’s pretty obviously an only child.
No wonder he starts his essay with this:
I am a very busy and important man. I don’t need to tell you this…I schedule 35 minutes a day for recreation. That’s all I need to refresh myself from the rigors of punching holes through the guts of this world. Recreation typically consists of lifting something heavy or posting a new sonnet to my blog.
Someday, maybe, if I try hard enough, I’ll be that busy.
