songbook
here lies, in chronological order (approximately), every song i've ever written or had a noteworthy hand in co-writing.
the end (my friends) [with brandon triance-haldane]
solitare for two [with brandon triance-haldane]
out there
unrequited love [with brandon triance-haldane]
highway 45 [lyrics by crystal brown]
livin' a lie
lavinia
the chance of my lifetime
liquid love
wind
for you alone
i let go
brave mercutio is dead
light years away
high school superstar
lunch box world
ice cream drill bits [with brandon triance-haldane]
i love you
exodus day [lyrics by kat kinch]
future
cloud nine
capture the feeling
lost
scared of being afraid
depression in disguise
cut me down
hear [lyrics by bethany butzer]
words fail
you made me
burn
want you
kissing fire
code name enrico
welcome to me
dancing with paris
i'm wrong
tripped and fell
a shadow's creed
vane
waiting by the phone
angel
hour and a lifetime
act one [lyrics by jill smith]
tears
truth in your eyes
just like rain
without you
fashionably laid
can't move on
trying too hard
andrew
for believing in me
one fell swoop
pipers caress
strange kind of freedom
the wakening
optical allusions
another day
young hearts
joyriders
free my mind
mesmerized
face the miles
blind eye
jarvis
take to the sky
dragonflied
distant music
serenade
lover you know (soothe me)
starry
the gentle touch
casanova's eyes
weeping for jada
simon says
hollows of your eyes
fresh cut bluegrass
flagrante delicto
hot air balloon
who do we think they are?
shame
buffalo
freeze me
these rails
eastern avenue
drag you down
springdale park (pleasant feelings on arriving in the country)
a soundtrack to drifting
the fake ones
:: karen
:: megan and ryka
:: she is the chorus of a song
:: gee-hosephat trigger put that pea shooter down
:: my future is static
:: dream in moss park
shadows
purr
california
take your photograph
sometimes I bring you down
everything
confessions of a shapeshifter
get out of madrid [lyrics by martha gellhorn]
:: what if i die here?
:: jesus, like cocaine, can heal a broken heart
:: doctor cupid
:: and that you have become a slave
:: may henry kissinger be horribly crushed from above somehow
:: fat girls are ugly
fruitcake and shame
crash me porcelain
pulse omission
monday patterns
harm-lit sky
oaken cruelty
baudelaire maroon resort
gated decoys
up [with betty dimo and dov tiefenbach]
down [with betty dimo and dov tiefenbach]
charmed [with betty dimo and dov tiefenbach]
strange [with betty dimo and dov tiefenbach]
truth [with betty dimo and dov tiefenbach]
beauty [with betty dimo and dov tiefenbach]
without song (part two)
helliday party
boxing day
hands on hearts in mouths on fire
bondage, mirth, worry [with betty dimo]
songs without words [with trucks leaving]
wild hurricanes fly [with trucks leaving]
fear of flying [with trucks leaving]
how to avoid huge ships [with trucks leaving]
false start [with trucks leaving]
crush crush [with betty dimo]
may all your synths be analog [with brandon triance-haldane]
glacier trails
vibrational detection
every song a photograph [with betty dimo]
total: 139
details, details...
the geographic references in karen are real places. one thing i'd realized about my songs was that they kind of floated in an arbitrary geography, but the songs i love have a definite grounded location. this theme comes up again in other songs. (featured on ghost.)
rooted in the title-a-song-with-the-names-of-two-women tradition of yo la tengo's "pablo and andrea," megan and ryka is my boredom-in-school song, with some shouts out to a couple of my favourite journalists.(featured on ghost.)
one of those it-came-to-me-in-five-minutes tunes, she is the chorus of a song is the most pop-oriented thing i've ever written. jammin' with the unseen guest will do that to you. (featured on ghost.)
gee-hosephat trigger put that pea shooter down was originally conceived as an anti-gun song, but it quickly took on a homoerotic life of its own. it its time, it was one of my favourite songs to play live, if only for the last few lines. (featured on ghost.)
you can take the title of my future is static in about five different ways. they're all true. special thanks to the secret location security crew for the extreme filter madness. you know who you are. (featured on ghost.)
dream in moss park is the best early example of my then-new experiments in grounded geography. it was also my first experiment in extreme fuzz bass, in spoken word, in non-linear alternate tunings and in using a screwdriver instead of a pick. experimenting rules.(featured on ghost.)
yes, i realize that what if i die here? is a wholesale paul simon ripoff. i just thought he asked a really good question in "you can call me al," and i wanted to use his musical language to try to answer it. (featured on everyone in moderation.)
i wrote jesus, like cocaine, can heal a broken heart in the toronto bus terminal. it was a few days after many thousand god-fearing pilgrims descended upon my poor town for something called "world youth day," and a few of them had not yet been chased beyond city limits. i saw one such straggler in the bus station. he was wearing a shirt that said "jesus can heal a broken heart." i turned to my roommate and said "y'know what else can heal a broken heart?" (featured on everyone in moderation.)
doctor cupid was written in about fifteen minutes. the first verse is based on a conversation i had with a couple of friends about that prevailing need to seek out a hibernation partner when the days get short, cold and fucking annoying. the rest of the song relates to the two themes suggested by the album title everyone in moderation (that other people are best appreciated in moderation, and that we're all most comfortable when we're as moderate as possible). (featured on everyone in moderation.)
a couple of years ago, a billboard for an online grocery store was pasted up near my apartment. the ad read "grocerygateway.com means never having to run out." at the bottom of the ad, a quick-thinking culture jammer wrote (in black spraypaint), "and that you have become a slave." (featured on everyone in moderation.)
may henry kissinger be horribly crushed from above somehow was supposed to be a very morose, dreary song, but it came out sounding sort of like a wishful prayer, which suits me even better. special thanks, of course, to homer simpson. (featured on everyone in moderation.)
it took me three months to write the words to fat girls are ugly, but i'm very happy that, eventully, i did. (featured on everyone in moderation.)
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thanks for the pic, brendan!