Here is a mixtape of songs made back in Denvertown. Most have been sitting out in the open over on the Cloud of Sound*, but why not collect them into a proper album? Just follow the recipe: sequence tunes, give it a title, add packaging, release!
Notes on these tunes (download here):
- A slivery, spare tunelet plucked and keyed, and truth is I recorded this as a backing track for something else. But there’s beauty in a simple thing. Like a circle.
- Strange, but true: I actually do now live on a sort of cul-de-sac, and I am also at this writing a sitting member on the board of the HOA. The rest of this song, however, is (still) fiction.
- My neighbor in Denver had an old Pontiac Grand Prix SJ parked on the street for years (likely still does). Summer sun baked away its factory sheen, and winter snow made its sharp angles all the stranger. That car and its shifting stillness is at least a little bit behind this arpeggiated experiment for two stringed instruments and an app called Bebot.
- Always thought I might do more with this one, perhaps add a second voice, make a video, but alas. Fun fact: I recorded the vocals on a commute to work, waiting for the 27 when it still went across Yale Ave. in south Denver. Listen closely, and you’ll hear.
- Another tune that could be bigger, longer … but better? Maybe not. This one is dedicated Uncle Rick.
- A song to follow “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” when the man-who-won’t-take-no-for-an-answer finally realizes no is the answer.
- John Dowland plugs in his hollow body electric guitar in a quiet Quonset hut and plays us this lament.
The world is jam-packed with homemade music, and your freetime is limited. On behalf of Kingsize Beast, thank you for listening. Proceed as if they give a damn.
Jon Pinnow 