Dear and the Headlights was an Indie Rock band from Phoenix AZ from 2005 to 2011-ish? My sister & I used to love listening to them & I recently gave them a listen after many years & discovered them all over again. This quiet little song is from their album "Drunk Like Bible Times". I am also trying to do a cover of the song "Willetta" from that album. The singer, Ian Metzger, is really good & hard to duplicate... so I hafta dumb it down some to cover him. Their bassist is off the charts good too. At any rate, this song here was just stuck in my head, so I gave it a whirl. Hope ya like it & you should check out the original song.

Parallel Lines (Dear And The Headlights Cover 2023)

*This song is definitely not in my usual wheelhouse... but I found myself humming the little synth part while it was playing on the radio & thought "why not do a rock version of this!". So here is the fruit of that labor... the song is very simple in terms of composition & chord structure. In that regard it was very easy to transpose it over to "rock" guitars. I also tried using a dual bass approach. One bass is distorted/dirty & the other is clean. You can hear this at the very beginning before any guitars come into the mix. Of course I can't sing anything like these modern auto-tune pop stars do, and that's fine. I wanted it to be grungy/alt rock. Oh yeah... this is my 1st recording with my new PRS Standard SE 24 that I just bought this past week! I'm digging that guitar! Enjoy.

Save Your Tears (The Weeknd/Ariana Grande Cover 2023) 2nd Mix

When I posted my cover of "Save Your Tears" by The Weeknd, my buddy Justin suggested that I do more covers of modern hit songs but with my alt/grunge style take on them... and of all the songs I could've done I picked what I figured to be the hardest one to transpose from pop to hard rock (not to mention highly unlikely given my musical tastes). Toxic. To be fair other bands have covered this as well & have done it justice. A Static Lullaby is one, but there's others too that really rock it out. My take is a bit different than all of them. I really enjoyed figuring this out & recording it, so I may stick with the modern stuff for a minute. As per my usual, all music, vox, instruments are all by me EXCEPT the drums. Those I patched together using a couple tracks from Arnaud Krakowka's youtube channel. I hope ya dig my rockin' version of "Toxic" by Brittany Spears!

Toxic (Brittany Spears Cover 2023)

My 3rd modern Pop song cover in a row. This time it's Post Malone getting the treatment lol. This was a fun one to cover though. As usual the vocals were a bitch for me... not really sold on them but oh well. I do enjoy my different way of playing the chords though. I basically made it more difficult? There's 3 guitar melodies playing at all times. Drums are by Guitar Maps Drum Tracks on youtube. Great channel for what I do. This is my 2nd posted mix... had to clean up some excessive noise, balance out the vocals & I changed the ending from a ring out to a cold stop. It's much better that way imo. Even though I'm not a fan of this guy, I hope you enjoy my Post Malone cover!

Circles (Post Malone Cover 2023) 2nd Mix

Every guitar player knows THIS song here is the coolest most bad-ass song ever. The movie Pulp Fiction made it famous, but it was recorded back in 1962 by "The King of Surf Guitar" Dick Dale. My Dad had his albums & when I was a little kid and my sister & me would play them on a big old console record player in our Grandma Swinderman's living room. Dick Dale & his Del-Tones, the Ventures, Beach Boys, The Surfaris, The Trashmen, Chet Atkins... such was my Dad's taste in music when he was a teenager. It's all killer stuff too. That it all had an early influence on me & why I play guitar... I have no doubts. This song in particular is heavily embedded into modern culture & it's primarily what people automatically "hear" in their mind when they think of "surf guitar". I've been playing it almost since I learned to play guitar... just not very well back then. But I had the fundamentals of the Mid-East flavored scales in the song. So, finally, at age 48... here is my somewhat extended cover of Dick Dale's "Miserlou". This is for my Dad. Also... R.I.P. Dick Dale. He passed away on March 16th 2019 & I was not aware until tonight. (It was absolute murder on my hands to play this... but I'm grateful I got it done.)

Miserlou aka the Pulp Fiction Theme Song (Dick Dale Cover 2023)

This is such a great song! But... it didn't start out that way. When Naked Eyes released this tune in 1983 it was a cover. It was written in the early 60's by Burt Bacharach & Hal David... recorded in '64 by Dionne Warwick and a few others also recorded it in the 60's... & let me tell you... the original versions are TERRIBLE! That's my opinion of course, but I invite you to give them a listen & tell me I'm wrong. They are so weird & awkward. Naked Eyes deserves a ton of credit for making this song such a great 80's anthem. I have no idea how they ever heard those earlier recordings and decided it was a good idea to cover it! Anyway... I had a ton of fun recording/mixing this song & even most of the vocal parts seemed to come easy to me. I used a "grunge" drum track from "Mr. Drum's" youtube channel & figured out the rest myself. Enjoy! (3rd & final mix posted 3/25/23.)

Always Something There To Remind Me (Naked Eyes Cover 2023) Final Mix

Delta Spirit is one of those bands for me where I either love their songs or they kinda irk me. They aren't the band for me to pop in an album & listen to it straight through, but some are better than others. This song is from their 2014 album "Into the Wide" & it is one of their best along with their 1st album "Ode to Sunshine" & 2nd "History From Below". The other 3-4 albums they've put out do nothing for me. But, back to this tune... it is one of my all-time favs. I remember when I first heard it actually... it's THAT important in my personal musical lexicon. I was going to add synths but I decided not to. There's already so many tracks I didn't want to lose the feel of what I already had. I have recorded this before with the synths, but that effort was bogged down with shitty drums & poor overall recording quality... & horseshit vocals I might add. I'm glad I gave it another whirl as this recording is sooooo much better than that first one. It's such a great song, you should get on youtube & listen to the original!

Hold My End Up (Delta Spirit Cover 2023)

This is my favorite song on the album "Filth Pig" by Ministry. I had no idea it was actually a cover of an obscure Bob Dylan song for many years... but it is indeed by Bob Dylan. How Ministry ever figured out this kick-ass way to cover it I'll never know... but my version follows Ministry's take on it. Drums are from Arnaud Krakowka & all other sounds/vox/bass/guitars are all me. I even mixed in the vocal echos. It took a long time to do but I think I am happy with the result. I may do some more re-mixing after testing it out on various speakers. Who knows? I hope you enjoy my cover of "Lay Lady Lay".

Lay Lady Lay (Ministry/Bob Dylan Cover 2023)

My cover of "Kiss Me Deadly" by Lita Ford. I heard it on the radio one day and when I heard the pre-chorus synth part I thought "that would ROCK with heavy guitars!". To be fair there are guitars in the Lita Ford version too, but not enough. I also added synths to mine but they aren't as pronounced. There's another song called "Kiss Me Deadly" that really is more up my alley... Generation X (Billy Idol's 1st band) also has a song with that title, & I have always really liked that song, but... Like I said though, that synth hook got me. That's why I started my version full throttle outta the gate with that riff whereas Lita starts a slow build up on the 1st verse. As per my usual, all vox & music are me except the drums which are from Arnaud Krakowka. Enjoy!

Kiss Me Deadly (Lita Ford Cover 2023)

This is most likely the very 1st QOTSA song I ever heard. Mainly because it's the 1st track on their self titled debut album from 1998. I love that 1st album... it's raw, lo-fi, hard groove stoner rock & I wish Queens had stayed the course a bit more than they have. This album was HUGE to us back then. I was just joining a band in Akron, finding myself musically & Josh Homme was a master at writing riffs that I dig. This song is a great example, although I will say that I have always had a slight distaste for that whining steel guitar noise at the very beginning of this song. I dig it when it comes back in later on, but not at the very beginning. However, I left it in my version because if you don't have it at the start, it really comes outta nowhere later & doesn't fit. Anyway, I hope ya dig my cover. I'm gonna do another early Queens again soon... (*I used youtuber Dan Van Nard's drum track in this recording. It was spot on and sounds great so thanks for the upload!)

Regular John (QOTSA Cover 2023)

The all-time party anthem by Queens of the Stone Age! After covering the other 2 songs I fully intended to move on from Queens... then I found a drum track for this song. It only took me about 5 hours over 2 days to complete. Most songs take around 20 hours/a week. But for better or worse here is the song about drugs & alcohol from their 2nd album "Rated R". I actually kinda dig how it turned out.

Feel Good Hit Of The Summer (QOTSA Cover 2023)

There's this guy on Youtube named Andre Antunes who does a cover of this song "in the style of Muse" & I gotta say... it is most excellent! His cover is far superior to mine, but he's the reason I wanted to cover this song in the 1st place. I've been pondering the Beatles for a while now. I have never covered them & they have stuff that I think would translate to grunge really well. I may do some more? I am really stoked with how this one came out though. I feel like I'm finding my voice after all these years! Also, this is my 1st song using my new Fender Starcaster semi-hollow body guitar I recently bought. It's the only guitar used in the whole song. Drums are from Arnaud Krakowka as per my usual. I hope you enjoy!

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Beatles Cover 2023)

My 2nd Beatles cover. This one was a bitch to get to come together... but I guess I'm pretty happy with how it finally came out. I nixed the opening vocals & opted for a heavier guitar intro. I also added a little "solo" after the 2nd chorus that isn't in the Beatles song. Anyway... here's another Beatles cover that translates into grunge/punk rather well. Drums are by Arnaud Krakowka & all other instruments & vocals are by me... enjoy!

Help! (Beatles Cover 2023)

I covered this song once before utilizing a "backing track" because I couldn't find drums for it. That backing track also had the bass & horns in it, so it wasn't really "me" covering it... it was just me on vox & guitars. I decided to give it another go using Arnaud Krakowka drums while grunging it out a bit more. I also decided to try & keep that 60's flavor as much as I could, mainly by keeping the background vocals prominent. It's such a great song... everyone on the planet likes "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes!

Be My Baby (The Ronettes Cover 2023)

Mix #2 of my cover of Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo. I couldn't get the vocals right and I had already put like 5 days into this recording... musically I was very happy with it so I went on Youtube & found Olivia's isolated vocal track, transposed it down a 1/2 step & carefully laid her voice into my music. I love the result. Her vocals go great with heavier guitars! I was toying with back up vocals & it was showing some promise, but in the end I liked her voice too much to tamper with any further. I chopped up like 5 drum trax to form this (thanx Doom Tones & Arnaud Krakowka!) and the rest is all me on guitars and bass. Hope you enjoy my grunge version of Vampire featuring Olivia Rodrigo on vocals!

Vampire (Olivia Rodrigo On Vocals Cover 2023) 2nd Mix

So I bought this beautiful Ibanez guitar at the pawn shop... got it home, plugged in... and discovered that the previous owner had it all set up for drop C tuning. I almost started to re-string it & set it up my way, but I kept noodling around with it and came to really dig the vibe & sound I was getting. In my pursuit of tones I just kinda started playing this riff... then it grew on me... then I decided to attempt to record it & here is the result. (I haven't recorded in weeks & I needed something to break my recording block.) My computer sucks & my Audacity kept crashing while I was tracking the guitars, so I had to keep it pretty simple & minimal. The title comes from the name of the drum track I used from Doom Tones youtube page. Enjoy!

Haunted Doom Stoner Rock (2023) 2nd Mix

Failure is one of the GREAT alt/grunge bands of the 90's that no one has ever heard of. They put out an album (I think in 1996?) that is one of the greatest albums of all time IMO. This song here is on that album... it's called "Fantastic Planet" & A Perfect Circle also covered this song. I actually recorded it around 3 years ago, but that was right before I started to learn how to properly track drums & that recording suffered as a result. This version is a bit longer than the original... I drew out a few riffs & the solo & the beginning too. If anything, go check out Fantastic Planet & discover how good Failure is. The song "Stuck on You" was their single & got some rotation on MTV back in the day, but there's really too many awesome songs on that album to list here. I hope you enjoy my take on "The Nurse Who Loved Me". (PS- Failure continues to this day to put out excellent music. They broke up for some years but re-formed around 2015 or so & have released 3 new albums... maybe 4? So there's lots of material to check out!)

The Nurse Who Loved Me (Failure Cover 2023)

This song has slowly become my favorite original I have ever written. I guess that's why I keep trying to perfect it through re-mixes & additional vox & guitar trax. I'm quite proud of it though... the music, composition... even the lyrics/vocals! Given that, I am going to put down the lyrics here (mainly for my sister to follow). It's something I have been wanting to start doing anyway & there's no time like the present. This song is basically about a guy who is pining away for his love to be reciprocated by the girl he fell in love with... & she isn't.

EVER Lyrics
Verse 1
I wanted to see you again
But you said we're not lovers we're just friends
To say what I already know
Why not give this thing a shot but take it slow
Your beauty is shining tonight
Give me this one chance to make things right
You're starting to lead me astray
I do not want to go but I can't stay

Verse 2
This infection is starting to show
Every time that I say stop then you'll say go
You're afraid to start feeling again
Yet I see it shine through every now & then
I can't figure what happens to me
Now you're here & now you're gone so let it be
I never wanted you to go away
Can we please just end this game why won't you stay

Chorus
I can never ever ever let you know
I'm at the end of my rope
I can never ever ever let it show
That I can't take anymore
(X2)

Bridge
I'll find you tonight
Make everything alright
Forever
For ever

Chorus X 3
End

That's the lyrics to EVER!

EVER (Re - Mix 12 - 3-23)

Ugh... this one took forever. I recorded it twice actually. The 1st time it was too close of a rendition to the original & not "herd rock/grunge" enough for me, so I exported my drums to a new file and started over again. I was also having severe latency issues while recording and it can sound muddy in some parts as a result. I tried to fix it as I went but... what a slog! Anyway, this song is always playing on the radio or on the house music at work & it grew on me. Dude can sing & compose, that's for sure. Time will tell if I end up liking this cover. Right now I'm just too over it to really listen in relax mode. I truly hope it turned out good because it's a few weeks of my life I'll never get back. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my grunge take on Benson Boone's "Beautiful Things".

Beautiful Things (Benson Boone Cover 2024)

The whole time I was recording this song, my cat Sabbath was going crazy every time I was playing the guitar parts. My cats do not like it when I play guitar. It's loud & I'm ignoring them. As a result, they mostly disappear when I'm playing... but for some reason every time I'd start that slow, quiet, pretty riff Sabbath would come running and scratch my leg or jump on top of the amp meowing, acting agitated & generally being a bad girl wanting me to stop to the point where I started saying "I'm gonna play your song!". So hence the title. It's just some riffs & ideas I threw together in 6/8 timing. Good drums are extremely hard to find in this time signature so I had to settle for whatever I could get. Still... I really like the song.

A Song For Sabbath (2024)

A brand new post-rock original song I finished on 1/11/2025. It's an instrumental song that I do not intend to add any lyrics to. There was a youtube vid reviewing guitars & equipment that caught my ear & provided the inspiration for this song, but I wrote & composed it all from my head afterwards. The equipment I used was an LTD H-200 guitar, an Ibanez High Performance RG guitar & a LTD spalted maple bass guitar that I adore to play. My Line-6 Spider III was used for all guitar parts & I added the Keeley Parallax Spatial Generator pedal for the staccato guitar leads throughout the song. I ran my bass through my Positive Grid Spark 40 amp & mic'd all of it using a $3 computer microphone I found at Goodwill. I "programmed" (cut & pasted snippets according to my compositional needs) the drums using Arnaud Krakowka's drums "Easy Metal Drum Track 85 bpm" from his youtube channel. It's a beautiful song that is sometimes quiet & pretty, sometimes heavy & dramatic... but I find it to be very inspiring & empowering & it has an awesome groove. Enjoy!

Rebirth of Spring (2025)

2nd mix. Another original song I've been working on for a while. The music has been done... I uploaded it as a song called "Def-Pop", but I always intended to have vocals added. The words themselves are what gets me stuck. The actual vocal patterns & melodies I can hear in my head almost from the beginning. It's basically about a guy who's in love with a girl & they've been together a while, but now he's not so sure she still loves him? Idk... it's hard to write meaningful lyrics sometimes & this song was one of those times for me. It has no personal connection to me, but... ya gotta write something. For equipment I used my Dean Exile guitar ran through both my Spark amp & my Line-6 amp for different parts & my LTD Bass ran through the Spark as well. The drums are a mix of Arnaud Krakowka & Mr. Drums at 160 bpms. It's a good song with a good groove... the vocals are prolly the most amateurish part of it, but I'm no Kurt Cobain when it comes to grunge vocals. Enjoy! (P.S.- If you CAN sing like Kurt Cobain... message me! I wanna collaborate! Lol...)

A Punk Rock Sorta Love (2025)

This song was gonna be great! It's all about sexual innuendos & the lyrics are quite clever. I had sirens & a girl moaning in the throes of ecstasy for the "solo" segment. However, soundcloud wouldn't let me upload it saying I was infringing on someone's copy righted sounds. I'm assuming it was the chick moaning lol. Oddly enough I had to remove the police sirens too before it finally allowed my upload. The only sample left in the song is the cougar roaring when the chorus begins. Anyway... I put all this effort into it that I still wanted to upload it and share it... orgasmic moaning or not lol. I used drums from Doom Tones & my Solar guitar as well as the red Ibanez. Bass was my LTD. I also added significant distortion to my vocals to better match the song vibes.

Song lyrics
(Verse 1)
Come on over tonight, oh God you look so pretty.
We're gonna rumble all night, making these clean sheets dirty.
A simple twist of your hair, you lick your lips wearing leather.
You got me down on my knees & I'm begging for pleasure.
(Chorus)
ROAR! Your arms! Your legs!
You're really revving up my libido!
My heart! My head!
I didn't catch your innuendo...
(Verse 2)
...You got begging for mercy.
After plowing the field, I'm exhausted & thirsty.
Understanding the signs has become my obsession.
I think I'm ready tonight I'm gonna learn my lesson.
(Chorus X 2)
(Verse 3)
Feel the crack of the whip, my nerves are frayed & they're screaming.
I can't believe what you said, I think I gotta be dreaming.
You got your hand on the pump & now you're working the lever.
How can you not understand? You should never say never.
(Chorus X 2)
...I didn't catch your innuendo.
(End song)

Innuendo (2025)

This song could've been 2 different songs. There's the 1st part which lasts about 6 minutes. This part is about coping with loneliness after losing a loved one. Then there's the ending which lasts a little over 4 minutes. This part is the actual "requiem" of the lonely. It's a beautiful little guitar riff that gets epic in it's intensity all the while my vocals cry out over & over "Oh no, oh no, oh please don't go. Don't go, don't go, leave me alone.". So yes... at 10 minutes 30 seconds long, this could've been 2 songs! I used my new Jackson Pro Series Monarkh for the 1st half of the song. For the 2nd part I used my ESP/LTD EC-1000 guitar. Both are "Les Paul" style guitars & both sound great! I wrote this from scratch over my 50th birthday & as per my usual, when I need something dark or intense to write about, I usually end up at losing my pet girl Catastrophe & the complete heartbreak it caused me to lose her after 20 years. I still am not over losing her even after 2 1/2 years... I don't ever want to get over her either. Her & Gidget both will be in my heart until the day I die. Enough of the sad stuff though... enjoy the song! The 2nd part begins at the 6 minute mark if you are finding the beginning not to your liking.

Requiem of the Lonely (2025)

"Let's search the sky, for a while, you & I. Collide like 2 stars, for a while, you & I." This is my 2nd mix of my new cover of Loathe's "Is It Really You?". A band I had never even heard of until the Youtube algorithm put it in my ears. I think of them as the Deftones of England. This is the song that introduced me to them & I knew right away I would cover it. It has been a real challenge though. The guitar player is in a different tuning & plays wildly irregular chords that made it very hard for me to interpret. I am not playing what he plays... at all. It's my best guess using 2 guitars... 1 in standard tuning concert pitch (Jackson Monarkh) & the other tuned a half step down in drop (the Solar). Then there's the vocals... this band has not just 1, but 2 excellent singers. They actually sound eerily alike in this song. But as we all know, I am not a singer. At best I am a back-up vocalist. But, if you're gonna do the song, you have to sing it too. The verses actually came out alright, but the chorus was daunting. I just kept adding more & more vocal tracks to try to nail the feel. It's everything in this song & if I can't do it, then there's no point. I didn't get it to where I wanted it to be... I just can't do it. However, after all the work I put into this, I think it's okay. But just barely! Either way, go check out Loathe!

Release date:
25 March 2025


Is It Really You? (Loathe Cover 2025)

A cover of the band Metric. Breathing Underwater. I originally did this song a few years ago & ended up splicing in the lead singer's vocal track because I couldn't sing it by myself very well... so I made it a duet as it were. Now my sister wants to try singing & Metric is a good choice, so I muted out the previous vocal tracks so she could sing to it in her own enviroment and get some practice. The guitars, drums & bass are pretty decent, so it was a quick and easy way to get her something to sing along with! Karaoke by Yelling Fire!

Breathing Underwater (Metric Cover 2025) Music Only

My sister wanted to try her hand at recording a song. She sent me numerous songs she wanted to try & I chose this one to cover. It has some hard rocking moments in it, but the original by The Naked & Famous used acoustic guitars for the quiet parts. I used electrics throughout & my drums are quite different as well... so while it is easily recognizable as the song "No Way", it does sound quite different. I will re-post once she adds the vocal tracks! The song is 130 bpms & I used my Hartwood semi-hollow guitar, my Schecter Omen & the Parallax Spatial Generator pedal for the clean parts. I used my Line 6 Spider III amp for all guitars. For bass I used my LTD Bass ran through the Positive Grid Spark amp.

No Way (The Naked & Famous Cover 2025) Music Only

An early attempt at writing "post rock" music. I wrote this sometime around the end of 2024. I actually really dig this song... both parts of it. The beginning & the end could be 2 different songs, but they blend together quite well. I called it "Swept Away" because that's how it makes me feel... that & my previous title of "My Post Rock/Shoegaze Experiment" was severely lacking cleverness. The song is in 3/4 time signature at 150 bpms. I used my red burled top Ibanez RGA470PB for all the guitar parts & my Schecter Bass. There's a lot of the Keeley Parallax Spatial Generator guitar pedal used in the 2nd half of the song. (The 2nd part begins at around the 3:37 mark...)

Swept Away (2024)

A tune I wrote a while back that I decided to record again... the 1st was in drop C tuning, this is in standard drop D. I used my new Ibanez Premium guitar as well as the Schecter Avenger to record this version with.

Haunted Doom Stoner Rock II New Ending (2025)

My cover of "No Way" by The Naked & Famous. My sis requested this one so here ya go! Vocals & all!

No Way (The Naked & Famous Cover 2025)

An idea that could become a song? I really dig the riffs & drums & how they come together. Has a "reggae" feel to it & I'm totally fine with that! I have a couple ideas for a 2nd part/ending to this that I will be experimenting with soon.

Bouncy Post Reggae Song Idea (2025)

I have played guitar since the age of 14 (around 1990 give or take) & I still play to this day... only now instead of playing live or seeking to be in a band, I record my own music at home! I use Audacity software (free!) & basically use a mic to record my guitars, bass & vocals through my various guitar amps. Drums I "program" by downloading tracks from youtube & chopping them up to suit my needs. I write my own music as well as record covers. I'm not a singer & all of my vocals are achieved by doing multiple vocal tracks to create a harmony that is otherwise lacking. Sometimes the results are ok, sometimes it sucks. Either way, making music & taking care of my cats are the 2 main reasons I am on this Earth. I hope you enjoy some of my stuff!

Jeff Swinderman 4

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