Death City Pool Hall. (Song a Month: February)

(If you don't already know about my Song a Month project, you can read all the previous posts here.)

Yes, I'm a little late with this one. But this song turned out to be a perfect example of why this project could be both a blessing and a curse. This song was 90% done for most of the month, I just couldn't get the words. Even they were largely done, but come February 29th they still weren't finished. So with the deadline now passed, I gave myself the weekend to tweak what I had and fill in the blanks. There's still a few parts I think could be improved, but on the other hand if I wasn't setting myself deadlines for these songs then this whole thing would still be sitting in the back of my mind somewhere, probably to never see the light of day. Instead I present it to you now as a song that overall I am actually pretty happy with.

Musically this song is very influenced by the fact that I recently bought both a Fender Jaguar and a Jazz bass. I was going for a Drones/Birthday Party type feel with this one and I don't think that would have been possible with any of my other guitars. I also wanted to get this one as close to 'live' as I could. Of course this is impossible when you're using programmed drums and only one person is playing every instrument. But I did record each instrument in one take from start to finish, so there's plenty of imperfections and rough bits. I was even rocking out by myself in the lounge room while playing to get the feel right. The lead guitar parts weren't even properly written when I did that take, I just had a general idea of how I wanted them to sound. This meant all the lyrics had to be finalised before I could start recording though, otherwise I couldn't know how many verses there would be or how long they should go for. The vocals turned out to be the hardest part to get for this one. One thing that became apparent is I need to develop a non-metal style of yelling/barking/sounding sinister. I don't know what my neighbours would have made of all the yelling either.

Lyrically this represents my first attempt to tell a fictional story in the lyrics. In this case a tale of death, sex and revenge. Heavily influenced by Nick Cave's 'Murder Ballads' album, and Murder by Death (anything off 'Who Will Survive and What Will be Left of Them?' or 'Red of Tooth and Claw' especially). The initial spark actually came from watching an episode of Skins, which is where I got the line "our eyes met over an eight ball". I remember reading an interview with Gareth Liddiard of The Drones once where he said that the trick with writing was to take an idea and just run with it. Use anything for inspiration and make your self write about it. I also knew that I wanted to end the song with the "She said 'I don't wanna see that look in your eyes'" part, which is something that popped into my head when I first came up with the riff, and that this would be a recurring motif. So from there it was a matter of figuring out what had happened to these people between meeting in a pool hall and her getting scared away. I started thinking along the lines of some epic character like that in MBD's 'Until Morale Improves, the Beatings Will Continue', or 'Ash', or 'Rumbrave' - outlaw, almost mythical characters who travel the land leaving a trail of death and destruction behind them. Of course the Pool Hall reference puts this tale more around the 1920's than the Old West, but that's more of a technicality really. I wanted it to be one of those stories that's not tied to any specific era. I also threw a Batman reference in there for good measure. Gotham City embodies that idea in some ways, a city outside of time where a classical style/feel and modern technology sit side-by-side. The line about "wine, women and song" is also based around this idea. I recently became aware of the fact that "Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll" is really just an updated version of this classic concept traceable back to at least the 10th Century. Death, Cards and Bad Ways are other vices that appear in some translations of the phrase, while the rest of the line refers to a 17th century poetical interpretation that "Who does not love wine, women and song / Remains a fool his whole life long." And as for leopards? I know they have spots, not lines, but lines just sounds much better, and technically a spot is a type of line. I could have used a tiger I guess, but again leopard sounds better, and they're smaller, stealthier animals which is the imagery I wanted.

I really wasn't sure what to call this one either. i thought about 'That Look in Your Eyes', but that kind of sounded like a love song. Then I thought 'Gotham City Pool Hall', but that sounds a bit gimmicky. So I've settled on 'Death City Pool Hall' for now, but this may change still. And that's pretty much all I have to say. Hope you enjoy it. If you're interested in the lyrics, I've put them below.

Song a Month: B-side 1

B-side 1: Untitled Bomb the Music Industry! cover

(If you haven't yet read about my Song a Month project you can do so here. And make sure you read about January's song in this post.)

I've decided to include a few "B-Sides" in this project. These will be things like covers, or re-workings of old songs or anything that doesn't quite fit. (It's my project, my rules, so these could all be pretty subjective.)

The first of these is a cover by one of my favourite bands, Bomb the Music Industry! This is not the song I talked about in my last post, though maybe I should do a cover of that sometime too. I don't know what this song is called. As far as I'm aware it doesn't have a name. It's the hidden song on their most recent album Vacation. (You can download the album, and all BTMI! albums, from that link via donation. However the bonus track is only on the CD version, not the download.)

As I mentioned last time, BTMI! songs often resonate with me, and this one definitely does at the moment. Something I've been enjoying recently is going for bike rides along the river while listening to music. This was recorded live after returning from one of those trips. I plugged my guitar into a little Marshall MS-2 battery powered amp and used my phone to record as I played while looking out off our balcony. Simple, lo-fi and effective. Inspired by the way the original sound, and a test to see how recording something like this would sound. I really like the way you can hear both the "acoustic" strums of the actual strings on the guitar and the sound coming out of the shitty little amp as well. I don't think this style would be effective for February's song, but it's something that may have worked well with January's.

Speaking of February's song, the music is all written. I have the seeds of a lyric idea, but it still needs a lot of work. And I'm going to attempt some drums for this one too(!).
We've also been working on a new Death by Death Ray track which is about 90% done now too, so I might have something to post for you on that front soon as well!