Category: sounds

the infinite dark

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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upon a glass road reflection

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.



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Alley Flights

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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Inside Track 003: This Time of Year (20221218d)

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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Inside Track 002: Need To Be

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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princess (sarsaparilla sessions 20220330.1)

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 boy

sleep in a sleepless city
crystal in a concrete world
just a princess and a quiet boy

a 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 princess

faith in a faithless city
diamonds in a leaden world
just a princess and a quiet boy syncing

this 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

Long Road Ahead (20221016a)

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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Inside Track 001: Paper Streets


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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Goes The Day [20220428b]

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

Counting [20220428a]

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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Rainbow Needle / Tennis Thread


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…

  • …was
  • …wasn’t
  • …will be
  • …is

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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Vampires In Love (live, solo)

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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Clouds Over LA (Sarsaparilla Sessions 20210210)

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 (live, 20210128)

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