hollygorock - official site, music, daily songs

You are in the know

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:39:22 -0400

The Daily Song project is going swimmingly! Just looking at the statistics I can see that more people have listened to “Days of the Week” all the way through than any other hollygorock song on the site. I like this! It’s my favorite, too. Shaddix likes it. Obviously I didn’t write a new song every night last week. Think of it as an on-going experiment in deadlines and melody mining. More songs to come!

The time was 9:30pm and I had nothing. So I threw together my...

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:30:44 -0400

The time was 9:30pm and I had nothing. So I threw together my attempt at a children’s song called “Days of the Week” and it’s probably the weirdest song I’ve ever written. Here are the words!

Running so late on a Monday.
Running so late on a Tuesday.
Running so late on a Wednesday.
Running so late on a Thursday.
Running so late on a Friday.

Running late, running late, running late!
Gotta take a shower, gotta take a shower, gotta take a shower, gotta take a shower.

Not running out of time anymore.
I have lots of time to find the door.
Not running out of time anymore.
My alarm went off just before four minutes of 10.

It’s Saturday!
It’s Sunday…

Play It Again, Samwise

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:51:09 -0400

So, the chords to “Marketing” had been around for a few months. This particular demo has been around since 9/29/2005. It was supposed to be something for Stop The Revolution but we never did anything with it. Kati just listened to it and says it’s her favorite! Here’s what I originally wrote about it when I first emailed it to stoptherev:

Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 17:19:01 -0400
From: Nick Williams
To: stoptherev

Jash and Kate, here’s a little something I made this afternoon, it’s a little demo of something new. Poppy and sort of new wave, the chorus is in a weird timing, like 10, but lots of melodies possible with it all. You might recognize part of it Josh, I think you’ve heard it before, but it’s sped up and more poppy. Let me know what you think of it and we might want to use it for stoptherev. It needs a couple more parts, but I thought I’d go ahead and post the chorus and verse with the cheesy keyboard drums so you’d get an idea of where I was going with it. Word.

-Mad Dog

Marketing

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:59:00 -0400

Finally finished tonight’s songling. I kind of cheated because I wanted to go to Trivia. So I didn’t write this song today. Well, I did write about half of the words, but the music has been around for a few months. But I could never find anything to do with it. Figured it’d make a Grand Daily Song. Plus it gave me an excuse to work on it and sort of “finish” it. I like it more than I thought I would. It’s a pop song with a standard arrangement. And I hope my boss(es) don’t get offended. I don’t REALLY hate the radio. I love the radio! It just follows the storyline. Here are the words:

Getting a Liberal Arts degree.
This sounds like fun, I can watch TV.
Critiquing movies and episodes.
Then get a job in the radio.

One year as a Computer Scientist was enough.
I like computers, but I hate computers.
Fuck computers. I love you.

And all of the kids took Psychology courses, to be cool.
And I did. And I was. I think.

All this, society would say, was a waste
Drop some courses, fail some courses, then wait.
One degree and a mediocre band…
Now I’ve learned how to turn you into a number.
And that’s it.

God dammit I’m a marketer.
I just realized I’m a marketer.
I’m part of everything that’s wrong with everything that’s wrong with everything.

I hate the radio.
I hate the radio.
I hate the radio.
I hate the radio.

My New Mascot Friends (In a Cave)

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:44:00 -0400

First song success! It’s only the first night but I’m already feeling good about the week. Time from conception to finished product: 3.5 hours. Stay tuned for another new song to be posted tomorrow night at 11pm! I reckon’ I’ll start writing it as soon as I get off work tomorrow around six. Can I complete a song and still make it to trivia at Locos at 9:30? OH WE’LL SEE. Here are the words to tonight’s songling:

A lady said that she was a bear.

I said no ma’am you are not a bear.
She gave a roar and to my surprise -
She was a bear in a girl disguise.

Time stood still.

Now, follow me, me.

She took me back to her hideaway.
Behind her house she showed me the way.
There stood a 15-foot-tall giraffe.
It was a giraffe in a girl disguise.

My new mascot friends in a cave.

Reposting my favorite song from 2009’s Nick’s Daily...

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:09:41 -0400

Reposting my favorite song from 2009’s Nick’s Daily Song blog, “Quit Waking Me Up.” Starting on Monday night, March 22nd, I’m going to do a week of new Daily Songs. If you’re unfamiliar, each day I will come up with some sort of original idea and run with it. The plan is to have 7 brand-new, fully-produced tunes by the end of the week. Some of them will be bad. Some of them will be good. This is one from August 18th, 2009.

Space Oddity.

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:17:00 -0500

Played a David Bowie song the other night. That is all! I should post more often. Still working on the layout of the new website.

Keep on keepin' on.

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:01:00 -0500

As much as I love the folks at @squarespace, I’m going to convert this Tumblr blog into my main site. Central headquarters for all things hollygorock, so to speak. With a little work, I’ll make this place home. I should commission some artwork from @joshlafayette.

SleepDreamSeeMe.

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:26:00 -0500

The first hollygorock show was a success. We’re getting back some pictures and video we’ll be posting on teh intarwebs soon. Thanks to everyone who came out and rocked with us! More shows on the way. For now, here’s the first song we played, which is also the first song from the EP.

“For No One” by The Beatles, arranged for one guitar and vocal,...

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:04:00 -0500

“For No One” by The Beatles, arranged for one guitar and vocal, recorded in one take. The mix is rough intentionally. It’s not really a hollygorock tune but I’ll post it anyways. Who is to say what is and isn’t a hollygorock tune anyway? I’m proud of this!

This list never changes.

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:00:00 -0500

Top 10 bands. I own all or most of their stuff.

The Beatles
Descendents
Guided by Voices
They Might Be Giants
Bettie Serveert
Elvis Costello
Ben Folds Five
Saves the Day
Poster Children
NOFX

“He’s Johnny’s best friend. And he lives in...

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:28:00 -0500

“He’s Johnny’s best friend. And he lives in this building.”

“Lisa! You’re crazy! It’s Mark isn’t it?”

So I caught the lovebirds at Wal-Mart tonight. I guess they got together after Johnny killed himself.

"You look so nice in that red dress. That’s a nice building."

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:24:00 -0500

“You look so nice in that red dress. That’s a nice building.”

- Lord Batur Shroobs, esq.

Red Bicyclette. Still learning how to use my Olympus E-10...

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:08:00 -0500

Red Bicyclette. Still learning how to use my Olympus E-10 camera. I’ve had it since 2002.

Here’s the original demo of “Look at the Time,...

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:11:00 -0500

Here’s the original demo of “Look at the Time, Baby.” This was a ‘daily song’ I wrote and posted to the intarwebs on December 15th, 2005. I think I’ll start posting lost tracks and songs from my old bands every now and again.

Top 5 netcasts

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:17:00 -0500

I like to watch and listen to shows on the internet. Some people call them podcasts. Leo Laporte calls them netcasts. Who am I to argue with Leo Laporte?

This Week in Tech
This Week in Fun
DiggNation
FilmRiot
The Tech Guy

About four years ago I thought about doing an EP of Screeching...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:29:00 -0500

About four years ago I thought about doing an EP of Screeching Weasel covers. I did all of the music for 4 songs but never recorded the words. I finished the words to this song tonight, 4 years later. Hooray! It’s called Totally and it’s from the band’s 1993 album Anthem For a New Tomorrow. I definitely have songs by other bands in the works for the next few weeks. I guess Thursday night is cover song night!

First list in a while.

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:32:00 -0500

Top five albums beginning with In.

Saves the Day - In Reverie
Sean Lennon - Into the Sun
Green Day - Insomniac
Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
Garth Brooks - In Pieces

For the second week in a row I’ve recorded a cover song....

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:26:00 -0500

For the second week in a row I’ve recorded a cover song. Might do this for a few more weeks. This time it’s 1985’s Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears. I cut out a few parts of the song to make it more hollygorock-ish so hopefully you TFF fans won’t mind the missing words. Have any ideas for more songs to cover? I made an album over at BandCamp to stream the cover songs, and also made a new album to stream all of the newer demos from the Nick’s Daily Song blog. Anyway, here’s the latest song:

Decided to record a Guided by Voices song called Sad If I Lost...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:13:00 -0500

Decided to record a Guided by Voices song called Sad If I Lost It. Was going to do another acoustic video but I went ahead and did a studio recording after work. Turned out just fine. It’s track two from the band’s 1997 Mag Earwhig! album. The Telecaster was in the Jeep so I used the ol’ Harmony from the flea mall behind McDonald’s. I kind of like the idea of recording a different cover song every week to see if anything cool happens. Maybe next week I’ll do a They Might Be Giants song. Yeah!