This is an old chord progression I used to fool around with.  I added some vocal lines done in rounds, little melodies here and there, and some booty bass.  You can always add some booty bass.

Don't Let Me Down

Sugar (Maroon 5 cover)

Typical Hero, circa 1998
Recorded at Laughing Tiger Studios, San Rafael, CA

Tomatoes

Back in 2001, I was living at 1535 Westgate Ave. in Los Angeles.  My roommate and I took liberties with having people over.  Our upstairs neighbor had about lost it by this point.  He and I got into a heated argument after I put our used newspaper in another neighbor's recycling bin.  In the pouring rain, the angry upstairs neighbor threw a potted plant at my face in the pouring rain from his second floor balcony.  I luckily dodged it and walked inside our apartment.  This is a recording of the message he left for my roommate (who was the only named lessee).  I took the opportunity to record some background music to the angry message.

Showdown at 1535 Westgate

In 1998-1999, I was living in the dorms at UCLA.  I lived in Sproul Hall.  It was a high-rise "triple" (definition: a room built for 2 people, occupied by 3 people).  UCLA had a bad habit of admitting more people than they could house. I often (read: always) hung out down the hall, in my surrogate dorm room, with surrogate roommates Ben, Ankur, and Javi. Ben had software on his computer called Mixman.  It allowed you to sequence samples and record your arrangement.  It was like a really primitive Ableton Live.  Well, my friend Vijay lived in plaza-style housing in Sunset Village. Vijay was REALLY serious about his studies. He was very "disciplined". He didn't drink caffeine, wouldn't use AIM, and refused to download WinAmp to listen to music. He also didn't drink.  These were all distractions, you see.  So I made this song to try to get him to let loose a bit.  It didn't work.  Vijay is now a neurosurgery resident at Duke. He drinks, occasionally.

ViJay

I wrote and recorded this song in the summer of 2004.  It's about a cat named Yuumi that HATED me.  Admittedly, I didn't do a whole lot to carry favor with her; but still, she HATED me. I used to own (actually, I still own them) a pair of brown Doc Martin boots.  Anytime I had them on, Yuumi would literally hiss at me and take a defensive/offensive stance and claw at them. To add insult to injury (and hissing), Yuumi would wait until I would fall asleep and then snuggle in between my legs and use my body warmth.  During my waking hours I was her arch nemesis. To date, this is the most comtemptuous pet (toward me only) that I've ever encountered. Maybe I should take a hint.  The song was recorded on the ProTools Mbox using a black Gibson SG, an SM58 mic, and a jenky shaker made of a salt shaker filled with rice.

Yuumi

In 2002 my friend Jules told me about this band "Random Conner and Justice Mann".  She said that it was right up my alley.  Jules and I were in the same music theory class at UCLA (shout out to Paul Chihara!).  Another student, Cole, and I played rhythm section for Jules' band, Lila (she's now in Oh Halo, based in NY).  Jules called me up one night and told me that she's going to go see Random Conner and Justice Mann down at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip, and that I should go with her.  I went with her, saw the show, and was BLOWN AWAY.  It was immediately my favorite band. They had so much fun on stage together, wrote great songs, and had the most charismatic front man I've seen.  Brandon sang and played guitar, David played drums, J.P. played keys, Mike played bass, and Josh played lead guitar.  I told Jules to let me know immediately if they ever needed a bass player.  Not even a few months later, Jules tells me that, indeed, the band we saw at the Roxy was looking for a bass player, and that they're really called Random Justice.  I was ecstatic! So Jules put me in touch with Brandon, the singer, and I scheduled an audition.  I met Brandon by Rock N' Roll Ralph's (the one on Sunset at Fuller) and it turned out we lived a few blocks from each other this whole time.  I got their recordings, learned their songs, and met them at their practice space out in North Hollywood to audition.  I got a message on my machine that I was in the band! This was one of the happiest days ever! We played shows, went on a mini-tour (drove to AZ in a van a few times) and recorded almost half an album until it eventually fell apart.  We even played a show at Spaceland (RIP!). To this day, Random Justice is one of my favorite bands ever. Being in Random Justice is among my proudest accomplishments and probably the most fun time in my life. Thanks, guys!  This song is called "Fruit Loops" and is probably one of the catchiest songs I've ever heard.  It was recorded by Justin Harvey in Reseda, CA (The Sick Water compound), summer 2003.  The song is written by Brandon Conner, performed by Random Justice.

Fruit Loops

This is a riff that I've had for a while.  I just laid it down with a Garageband drum beat.  It's literally one bass track played over a drum loop.

Snowcone

In 2005, or thereabouts, my good friend, Jean-Pierre (http://vimeo.com/jeanpierrecaner/videos/), made a short 5-minute film.  It was a silent short film, and was to have an instrumental score playing throughout.  JP contacted me to write a score.  He wanted something jazzy, classy.  My musical abilities are rather limited (read: I'm not that good), so I came up with something that was in my wheelhouse.  JP considered it, but made the smart choice of going with a Chet Baker song ("The Touch of Your Lips") instead.

machukes

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