../melody in chaos
First new track in a while spilled out today, on the heels of my first couple weeks flying solo here in NYC (Cat’s away in Melbourne on Apple’s “Metropolis” for at least a year). A couple days ago, Luna underwent some demanding diagnostics that uncovered she has epilepsy. I’m still processing news and new routines.…
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tr: Because nothing is yellow, everything is green.
haha, at least everything’s not blue…
Artist Ward Spring paints The Glass Road to “Upon A Child’s Doll Reflection [disquiet0180-matryoshkamusic]” off my 2015 record Sunrise Highway.
…YouTube Liner Notes
Puddles everywhere. Certain angles are nice to ponder. The Upside Down. Although I am now dogless, I still go out for “dogwalks”. This scene was 7AM yesterday in the Union Bay Natural Area.
Youtube user Saboruchan takes us on a journey through a “virtually untouched” abandoned bowling alley in Haikyo, Japan, that opened in 1973 and closed in 2018. Through the modern miracle of a cc-by-sa-nc Creative Commons license, the scene is soundtracked with “Chasing Flight” off my 2016 record Almost X.
Saboruchan’s affection for the abandoned-in-state space and its lost localised grandeur resonates through the video.…
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written: 20191113.0927
key: A
time: 3/4
one for the lonely
I set out to write a “holiday song” a few years back, even daring to dream of expanding the thought into an EP I would definitely call A Very Westy Holiday.
The EP’s still a dream, but I was home in NYC a couple weeks back, and dusted off the track, while also dusting off Jolie, my Gibson ES335 modded by Paul Schwartz of Peekamoose Guitars.…
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In 2018, my wife Cat costume designed the Amazon series Homecoming in Los Angeles, so we decamped Brooklyn for a 1930s cottage aerie perched halfway up Laurel Canyon. I couldn’t bring any guitars to LA, because when you pack for an 8-month trip, with no back-and-forths, hard decisions have to be made between fashion studio and music studio.…
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recorded at the Hood’s Sarsaparilla Soda factory,
30 march 2021
lowell, ma
no princes in this city
no warnings about the wicked
just a princess and a quiet boysleep in a sleepless city
crystal in a concrete world
just a princess and a quiet boya silence passes through us
as our eyes meet on the subway
it wakes me with laughter as we sway with the train
a quiet moment of inspiration
just a boy
and his princessfaith in a faithless city
diamonds in a leaden world
just a princess and a quiet boy syncingthis silence given to us is simply to find
a quiet moment of inspiration
just a boy and a princess
from Windfall, released August 2, 2004
https://thereflectors.bandcamp.com/track/princess
my most spun track on Spotify from my former days as The Reflectors. Written in 2008. Released in 2009 on my record Goodbye Monday Blue.
It’s all still true lol.
https://thereflectors.bandcamp.com/track/long-road-ahead
we got a long road ahead
settle down. settle back. settle in.
don’t you know that we’re gonna have to work until we’re dead?…
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all the things you love, recorded live this past quiet Saturday magic hour.
Been on a ritual Nick Drake dive in the last couple weeks. Lol can you tell?
I find a watercourse way through life in Nick Drake’s songs – the paradox being he never found that way for himself.…
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religion isn’t about the god, it’s about the faith
faith in a god (irrational and unprovable as any deity is) translates to faith in oneself
that is to say, one’s faith in a god is not faith in itself/himself/herself/theirself being true. one’s faith in a god is faith in one’s belief the god is true.…
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music: “Chasing Flight” off my 2016 record Almost X.
Arms Length In Dreams
20220421.0744, 20220424.2258
(G) I’ve seen good luck
I’ve seen bad
i’ve crashed (Em) big, i’ve (Cmaj7) stood tall
(G) but most days
just stand still
and don’t (Em) see much (Cmaj7) luck at (G) all
risks i (Em) take
sometimes time (G) out
What else can I (D) do?…
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_street
“A paper street or paper road is a street or road that appears on maps but has not been built.”
“Beware! Paper Streets” cautions a sign hung by the Kirkwood Bowl Foundation towards the base of Laurel Canyon, LA, where I lived for most of 2018 (Inside Track 002 dives more into why I was there).…
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Written 20200418.1020
C F G
F C G
C F G
these days i wake in the same dream
F C G
where living is the flip side of life
Am. Adim7 Am7 D
where the future’s a memory of plans ahead
F G Am
where sometimes dying doesn’t mean you’re dead
F C G
gone gone gone goes the day
F C G
back back back all the way
Am Adim7 Am7 D
to a far far far off place
F G C
goes the day
empty streets, distant echoes
footsteps, indifferent neon signs
sirens, silence, lonely traffic lights
sounds of a world waving goodbye
Em F C
today aches for yesterday
Em F C
tomorrow’s just a someday place
Am G F
where the only answer, somehow,
Am G F G
is we all take the same exit out
written in Laurel Canyon 2018
LYRICS
What if we could ride all the waves
What if the world was safe
for everyone we are?
What if we could exchange
Every turn we’ll ever take
For one North Star?
Counting on lightning
Counting on dreaming
Counting on sleeping
sometime soon
Counting on one plan
Counting on another hand
(and I’m still) Counting on you
What if we could live on a cloud
above the rain
where stars are the only lights
Where the wind is stable ground
and blind faith carries us through the sky?…
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Words are my thread; music is my needle
I haven’t written too much on the internet in the last few years because I am afraid of what…
This internal poll will be open for the rest of eternity, or until eternity runs out of time, power, or storage
To run out of storage is to run out of time.…
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A fav track by Canadian artist Bruce Cockburn, performed last year during a rehearsal for a live stream from my apartment (at the time) in the old Hood’s Sarsaparilla Factory Lowell, MA.
My favorite new track this year. Written with Composer+Producer Masaya Ozaki (https://masayaozaki.com), in response to a call he received from a music licensing company for “summer songs about adventure and time.” Every once in a while, I write with no irony. Anti-confessional mode, you might say.
“Screw off, I’m happy.”…
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A song written in 2018 in Laurel Canyon, CA. Performed this year in Lowell, MA (which we affectionately called Lowell Canyon while living there for 8 months in 2021).
LYRICS
time will not release
a missing puzzle piece
or faded memories
of deleted scenes
you can’t watch a sunrise
through someone else’s eyes
if they never see you
in dreams
clouds over LA
dance alone
between skies
distant freeways shimmer
traffic as rivers
red and white ribbons
valley to sky
lost friends reappear
in dusty windshields
as evening light hits
California 5
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
drifting the night
suspended from life
shadows of every last good bye
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
Austintown, OH, is the driving midpoint between New York City and Chicago. Written election season 2004 in Austintown at the Best Western off Rte 80, in view of the Quaker Steak ‘n Lube across the highway.
performance recorded Jan 2021 at the old Hood’s Sarsaparilla Soda Factory in Lowell, MA
from Hola, Sayulita (2010)
LYRICS
When they dig us up – they might never know
We dug deep – left our evidence as far down as they will go
They might even think we were older than dinosaurs
Arrogance thinks we’ll see the end of the world
That we’d be last ones – to ever see
the truth/the truth
it’s just funny how much
truth
you
find
½ way between here & there
so many secrets you can’t begin
to dare to leave
escaping only in dreams
looks like it comes down
tonight to AustinTown
They’re gonna say we went backwards – all the way back
Before we went forwards again
Here it comes around again
And there goes the
the truth
ah, the truth
it’s just funny how much
truth
you
find
½ way between here & there
so many secrets you can’t begin
to dare to leave
Escaping only in dreams
looks like it comes down
tonight to AustinTown