No, I haven't died or fallen off the face of the earth, I'm still here, toiling away at my toilsome things and trying to sneak in some time to record a new collection of off-key and quiky covers.

In the meantime, until I can get some new stuff up here, here's a bonus internet "release" (heh) of Robyn Hitchcock covers, recorded for my own amusement.

Clicky click!

Lullaby Of London (The Pogues) December
One of Shane MacGowan's pretty songs--no decay, degradation, drug abuse or drinking to excess, just a sweet lullaby. You could sing it to kids even! Well, maybe not, it does have those lines about ghosts and haunted graves. Oh well, nevermind, just drift off to sleep with my off-key, flat voice and the dingle dingle of the glockenspiel. Listen for: The gentle aural kiss of "Serena Swirl."

Sing (The Dresden Dolls) "Leap Year" bonus track
This wonderful power(cheez)ballad, though perhaps naïve in ways, is still one of my all-time favorite Amanda Palmer songs. Plus, since my Myspace for the songs from this project is named in her honor (Eyebrows), it seemed only fitting to include this. Listen for: a certain bad word, and then, oh! another one (except in the clean version).

Cheers! Happy Festivus!

So far, so good:
1 Surgery (Robyn Hitchcock) January
2 Girls Who Keep Goldfish (The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy) outtake
3 Johnny Yen (James) February
4 Southern Mark Smith (The Jazz Butcher) now the "official" song of the month version, was outtake version previously
5 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (Bob Dylan) March
6 The Ghost Ship (Robyn Hitchcock) outtake version
7 Get Me Away (Belle & Sebastian) April
8 Mother of the Bride (Billy Bragg) outtake
9 Human Music (The Soft Boys) May
10 Accident Waiting To Happen (Billy Bragg) outtake
11 Christ For President (Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg & Wilco) June
12 The Sleeping Knights Of Jesus (Robyn Hitchcock) rarity, myspace only!
13 Rhode Island Is Famous (Dietz & Schwartz) July
14 Agony Of Pleasure (Robyn Hitchcock) rarity, myspace only!
15 The Ghost Ship (Robyn Hitchcock) August
16 Mexican God (Robyn Hitchcock) bonus track! myspace only!
16.5 Career Opportunities (The Clash) super bonus myspace-is-borked song
17 New Girl (The Long Winters) September
18 Tell Me About Your Drugs (Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians) bonus track
18.5 Victorian Squid (Robyn Hitchcock) super extra consolation bonus track
19 Papa Was A Rodeo (The Magnetic Fields) October
20 Tonight (The Soft Boys) myspace only bonus track
20.5 Aquarium (Robyn Hitchcock) just plain extra
21 Only The Stones Remain (The Soft Boys) November
22 Eighth Day (Hazel O'Connor) bonus!
23 Lullaby Of London (The Pogues) December
24 Sing (The Dresden Dolls) Leap Year

All can also be found here:
http://everythingnotrelated.com/Luckyforyou/

21 Only The Stones Remain (The Soft Boys) November
Now they're gone, yeah! It's "beads and fish changed hands," "a taxidermist, grinning with delight," and "violated" in this version, baby! Recorded after breakfast, quickly. Listen for: a bit of the song backwards.

22 Eighth Day (Hazel O'Connor) 5 UK singles 1980
The end of the world as we know it. From Breaking Glass, a movie I dearly loved many years ago. Listen for: The tickle in your ear known as "Fiji Afterglow."

Thanks to the tireless unborkers of myspace, who fixed the uploading problem I had for the last two months.

So far, so good:
1 Surgery (Robyn Hitchcock) January
2 Girls Who Keep Goldfish (The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy) outtake
3 Johnny Yen (James) February
4 Southern Mark Smith (The Jazz Butcher) now the "official" song of the month version, was outtake version previously
5 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (Bob Dylan) March
6 The Ghost Ship (Robyn Hitchcock) outtake version
7 Get Me Away (Belle & Sebastian) April
8 Mother of the Bride (Billy Bragg) outtake
9 Human Music (The Soft Boys) May
10 Accident Waiting To Happen (Billy Bragg) outtake
11 Christ For President (Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg & Wilco) June
12 The Sleeping Knights Of Jesus (Robyn Hitchcock) rarity, myspace only!
13 Rhode Island Is Famous (Dietz & Schwartz) July
14 Agony Of Pleasure (Robyn Hitchcock) rarity, myspace only!
15 The Ghost Ship (Robyn Hitchcock) August
16 Mexican God (Robyn Hitchcock) bonus track! myspace only!
16.5 Career Opportunities (The Clash) super bonus myspace-is-borked song
17 New Girl (The Long Winters) September
18 Tell Me About Your Drugs (Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians) bonus track
18.5 Victorian Squid (Robyn Hitchcock) super extra consolation bonus track
19 Papa Was A Rodeo (The Magnetic Fields) October
20 Tonight (The Soft Boys) myspace only bonus track
20.5 Aquarium (Robyn Hitchcock) just plain extra
21 Only The Stones Remain (The Soft Boys) November
22 Eighth Day (Hazel O'Connor) bonus!

All can also be found here:
http://everythingnotrelated.com/Luckyforyou/

Why would myspace not let me upload last month's songs and one of this month's?
I suppose the answer is that myspace is ridiculous, but that's not good enough.
I tried several times to put up Papa Was A Rodeo, and each time it spent days saying it was "processing." Last month it gave me some error message each time.
This month I was able to put up the bonus song and that went OK. So, I also just put up another hastily-recorded lofi Robyn cover and it worked. So I guess those will be the songs in the myspsace player for now and I'll try to get next month to work right. Grrr.

Anyway, it's Aquarium, from Robyn's 1990 solo album Eye, one of my favorite albums ever, top 5 of all time, definitely! I love the line "She says she's gonna saw her head off...she only does it for attention...like other people I could mention."

If any of you cool cats know what's going on, just let me know!

The morning wind blows into the future, boys and girls!

New Songs for October!

19 Papa Was A Rodeo (The Magnetic Fields) October
Stephin Merritt could write 69 hundred twisted love songs if he wanted to, and I'd listen to them all. This one is a real favorite, since the situation involving the star-crossed truckstop lovers is entirely ambiguous. It's a super creepy love song, swathed in disappointment and that about-to-cry feeling. Hooray! Mike is, apparently, a character Nancy Sinatra played in a movie, or at least that's what some people think. Listen for: Gabe, who calls me Poppa. (As of Oct 2 this is still fermenting, or at least the myspace.com says its "processing")
Stupid myspace! Well, it looks like this month's songs are messed up too!
Here it is! Papa Was A Rodeo


20 Tonight (The Soft Boys) myspace only bonus track
Robyn Hitchcock's great song of love and paranoia. Listen for: I think my sister's dog jingles his collar at one point or maybe that was another song I recorded in the basement this summer.

OK, so I went to put up the September Song of the Month, along with the usual bonus track...and fifteen tries later it still won't work. So, until teh myspace will take the songs I want to upload, here's two new tunes, an old rare-ish Robyn Hitchcock song and a Clash cover, which pretty much sums up my job-hunting adventures this Summer. I have no clue why these songs will go up but others won't. Oh well. Enjoy! Have a good Labor Day Weekend. Hopefully all technical difficulties will be fixed soon!

EDIT: I tried again and again. It just doesn't like the file at all.
If you would like the songs they are here:
New Girl
and
Tell Me About Your Drugs can be the September bonus track, I suppose.

So, here's the info:
Song of the Month mp3 17
New Girl (The Long Winters) September
Unlike most Long Winters' songs, this one does not recall John Roderick's frequent relationship troubles. Well, actually I have no idea if he has relationship troubles in real life, but he does have a lot of songs about them. Just be kind to the new girl! (in 14 pt type!). I once knew a girl who burned all her artwork--just once though. She wasn't my girlfriend or anything, just a crazy roommate in art school. Listen for: Sam, during the "No, you are" part.
On second thought, maybe this is about another of John Roderick's tragic relationships.

Song of the Month mp3 18
Tell Me About Your Drugs (Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians) super rare myspace-only bonus track.
A bonus track on the Element of Light CD. The thing is, all the musicians would switch instruments for it. So, when Robyn says, "Tell me, Morris!" he isn't saying that his drummer has a drug problem, he's saying, "Tell me, Morris, baby, with the guitar!" This is another of those laptop mic picking up what's in the room recordings. Listen for: the absence of Morris' ridiculous but great "solo".

And, just for shits and giggles,
Victorian Squid (Robyn Hitchcock)
Perhaps one of the most obscurely dirty songs ever written. Listen for: fuzz, in piles and bunches.

Remember, these three are in the links, since myspace is stupid.

New songs!

Song of the Month mp3 15
The Ghost Ship (Robyn Hitchcock) August
"A rock and roll sea chantey." This song has been a fascinating mystery to me since a few seconds of it appeared at the end of Unsettled, from Globe of Frogs, in 1988. Listen for: the probably inaudible yelps and giggles of Gabe and Sam on at least one vocal track, as well as Unsettled where The Ghost Ship should be.

Song of the Month mp3 16
Mexican God (Robyn Hitchcock) myspace-only bonus track
Since there seems to be a new tradition of making all the monthly bonus songs Robyn tunes, here's another. It seems somewhat connected to The Ghost Ship—if the wayward, doomed sailors of said ship happened to get lost during their explorations and had a series of unpleasant happenings, um, happen to them—such as becoming human sacrifices in some Aztec ritual for example—they could be connected. Maybe. Or not. Anyway, listen for: the inspirational affirmations of the lyrics of this great song. Also, remember this is just another of those quick and dirty, right into the computer mic deals.

So far, so good:
1 Surgery (Robyn Hitchcock) January?
2 Girls Who Keep Goldfish (The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy) outtake?
3 Johnny Yen (James) February?
4 Southern Mark Smith (The Jazz Butcher) now the "official" song of the month ?version, was outtake version previously
5 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (Bob Dylan) March?
6 The Ghost Ship (Robyn Hitchcock) outtake version
7 Get Me Away (Belle & Sebastian) April
8 Mother of the Bride (Billy Bragg) outtake
9 Human Music (The Soft Boys) May
10 Accident Waiting To Happen (Billy Bragg) outtake
11 Christ For President (Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg & Wilco) June
12 The Sleeping Knights Of Jesus (Robyn Hitchcock) rarity, myspace only!
13 Rhode Island Is Famous (Dietz & Schwartz) July
14 Agony Of Pleasure (Robyn Hitchcock) rarity, myspace only!
15 The Ghost Ship (Robyn Hitchcock) August
16 Mexican God (Robyn Hitchcock) bonus track! myspace only!

All can be found here:
http://everythingnotrelated.com/Luckyforyou/

Song of the Month mp3 13--Rhode Island Is Famous For You (Howard Dietz & Arthur Schwartz)
My fan (singular) regularly sends me songs to think about doing, and she sent me this one, the Blossom Dearie version. I instantly fell in love with it, perhaps because it's one of those sorts of songs that add, count or list things (like a Sesame Street song). Also, because her birthday is in July. Listen for: my tremendous MIDI trumpet playing!

Song of the Month mp3 14--Agony Of Pleasure (Robyn Hitchcock)
Another rarity, like last month's outtake, only available here on the myspace.

All of these and more are at www.everythingnotrelated.com/Luckyforyou

Photos won't upload at the moment...I know you love them, too! I'll try again soon, to get them fixed.

My dear, sweet, patient (and musically forgiving) friends,

mp3 #11 Christ For President (Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg & Wilco) June
Part hoedown, part tent revival camp meeting, another part satire, along with a smidgen of socialism. That Nora gave the lyrics to Billy and Billy invited Jeff and Jay to play is nothing short of a miracle. One of my favorite Mermaid Avenue songs. Listen for: springs!


mp3 #12 The Sleeping Knights Of Jesus (Robyn Hitchcock) rarity
This is a rip from a very old vinyl 7" I did, so the quality is somewhat dubious (or I'm totally making that up and it's from a preset called "Dust Me" in an AU plug-in called "Vinylizer." I've always imagined some sort of dusty, decrepit old knights waiting patiently to be called into service in some apocalyptic showdown, and then when I saw that third Indiana Jones movie, the image of that Grail-keeper guy just sorta stuck on top of any that I had. Listen for: theological subtleties.


FTR
#1 Surgery (Robyn Hitchcock) January?
#2 Girls Who Keep Goldfish (The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy) outtake?
#3 Johnny Yen (James) February?
#4 Southern Mark Smith (The Jazz Butcher) outtake?
#5 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (Bob Dylan) March?
#6 The Ghost Ship (Robyn Hitchcock) outtake
#7 Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying (Belle & Sebastian) April
#8 Mother Of The Bride (Billy Bragg)
#9 Human Music (The Soft Boys) May
#10 Accident Waiting To Happen (Billy Bragg) outtake

Available at
www.everythingnotrelated.com/Luckyforyou
except for the Southern Mark Smith one (was mp3 #4), which is no longer an outtake, but is very much in the dir. Also, the track numbers of these files are not the same as their Song of the Month mp3 #s. But they should all be there.

New Song(s) of the Month

mp3 #9 Human Music (The Soft Boys) May
Stuffed with flies, indeed! A fine old Robyn Hitchcock tune, here lovingly rendered as something that might be on the radio (in bizarro world). Listen for: NPR.

mp3 #10 Accident Waiting To Happen (Billy Bragg) outtake
Heaven help me! Another cool BB song, here botched and butchered in another straight into the iBook built-in mic lunchtime office demo. Listen for: A carnival of carnivores.

Cheers!