I found myself in a quandary recently; I wanted to work up my classical chops (who wouldn’t after making something like Infinite Loops?!) but everyone was sleeping.  Solution: practice mute.  A practice mute is a device that clips onto the bridge and makes the instrument no louder than a whisper.  Cello is all about resonance but the practice mute totally kills all that.  Cellists hate them.

But there I was, playing away, and I realized that the only people who hear practice-muted cello are cellists and weirdos who eavesdrop on cellists trying not to be heard.  And even though the mute removes all the nice resonance, I will reluctantly admit that the sound does fit some music, especially when the lights are off late at night and you are thoughtfully sipping expensive liquor.

Being Friend King, I hooked up my microphone, cranked the sensitivity to max since the cello was so quiet, and recorded some practice muted Bach so everyone can hear what it is like to be a cellist trying not to wake anyone up.  Will you hear the beautiful singing resonant tone I usually aspire to create?  No, but that’s the point.

I told you it would be weird!  This song segues out of Darkrise and is made out of, you guessed it, loops (of the audio variety).

Music written and performed by me.  Lyrics, all three words, written by cleanwhiteroom. 

Here is the next SuperCos song- Darkrise.  Apologies to Beethoven for changing the key.  I refuse to apologize for the drums, the electric guitars, or the multiple simulated thunderstorms.  This song immediately follows Burden of Proof and they segue together (the mastering is a little off but you’ll get the idea).  Finally, you’ll notice that this song cuts off as well.  It’s going to segue into yet another third song!!!  An epic three song trilogy of SuperCos!  Question- will this next song be weird?  Answer- yes!  Luck all of you.

Music written and performed by me (and Beethoven).  As always, lyrics provided by cleanwhiteroom.  Technical help on this one from elementals. Hope you like it!

The Next One is coming...

The followup to Burden of Proof is coming soon.  I know that the sudden harmonica cutoff at the end has been leaving many of you in incredible and gut wrenching suspense for weeks as to what will come next- your wait is almost over.

This one is a big shift from the stuff I’ve released recently.  It’s a pretty bare bones affair, just vocals, gitter, and little bit of harmonica to keep it classy.  No face melting guitar solos here, just super deep emotional pain.  I cried for ten straight minutes after recording this song...in a silent stoic sort of way.

Music written and recorded by me.  Lyrics by cleanwhiteroom.  The song will be available on my Bandcamp page (It’s nearly 1AM- I’ll do that tomorrow) and the cleanwhiteroom website.

PS- you may notice that the music cuts off abruptly at the end.  Why, you may ask.  It’s because THIS SONG IS GOING TO SEGUE INTO ANOTHER SONG!!!  I’m basically The Beatles.  I’m also modest.

Burden of Proof is coming

Dear everyone,

I am recording a new song and it will be done soon.

Sincerely,

Friend King

The new song is here and this is it!  You all were very good so, as promised, I asked allyspock to give my hand and she kindly provided some excellent backing vocals.  I was very picky and probably a little annoying about the whole thing so she deserves an extra thanks.  The lyrics were written by the inimitable cleanwhiteroom.  Where are you going to get lyrics like this?  The lyric store?  Even the title- Ontology Rejects Reductionism?!  I mean, seriously...

Song written and performed by me with additional vocals by allyspock.  Please download the song if you would like at the cleanwhiteroom website or my Bandcamp page.  Coverart by littletinheart.

As promised, I've been working on a new song.  Buuuuuut........this isn't it.  There have been a few delays so in the meantime I'm posting a completely ridiculous and irreverent cover of allySpock's very lovely song Sea of Dirac.  SuperCos cover songs have been unplugged up until now, but I decided to go "plugged" seeing as the original is already unplugged and simply cannot be improved upon.

The song opens with a quote about Dirac by the famous Wolfgang Pauli of Pauli Exclusion Principle fame (remember your high school chemistry boys and girls?).

Finally, I had permission from allySpock to record this ridiculocrity.

This song was written by allySpock then arranged and performed by me.  Lyrics, as always, by cleanwhiteroom.  This can be downloaded (soon not yet) on the cleanwhiteroom website and my Bandcamp page.  Cover art is a "Stadium" of iron atoms adsorbed onto nickel with the resulting electron waves imaged by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy.  The closest we will ever come to visualizing a real Sea of Dirac.  Boom!  ::mic drop::

New Song Coming!

It's coming soon....Stay tuned!  If you're all really good I'll ask AllySpock to give me a hand.

A post for the one year anniversary of The Superconducting Colliders.  It seemed fitting to make it a cover of the very first SuperCos song, AllySpock's fabulous Central Dogma.  Like my last post, this is a single take, no processing, fully acoustic recording.  Just me, my gitter, and a microphone.

Music written by AllySpock, lyrics by cleanwhiteroom, performed by me.  Artwork by narcomanic.

It's a cold rainy miserable Saturday night and Friend King has nothing to do.  So, on a whim I recorded an acoustic version of Dreaming Correctly in a single take- no do overs, no overdubs, no pitch correction, nothing.  The original is here. It's fitting that the most complicated and elaborate of all SuperCos songs gets the most minimalist treatment here.  It's like when Bruce Springsteen recorded that album Nebraska; just a stripped down, hauntingly beautiful, and perfect crystalline distillation of all that preceding glitz and glam into an effortless penetrating haiku of song.  Yes, this is exactly like that.