The Songs That Broke Up My Band

Welcome to this album. My hope is that this is a better way to share songs. Consider the blog the fold of the album cover, or the CD booklet. It's got some commentary, videos, links and bonus songs. Flip through it at your leisure. Let me know if you think of anything else I could share. Here are all the songs, in the order played, which you can download by clicking. I hope you like them.

Get It Right (Get It Good)

Baby Why Yer Eyes So Wild? 

Love Came Calling

Pumpkin Pie

Was That A Joke or What Was That, A Joke?

My Name Is Love

I’m A Sexy Girl

Prove My Love

Seething

A Broken Nose (Is Worse Than A Broken Heart)

It’s Only A Heart Attack

Good Help Is Hard To Find

Too Good To Give Up (Too Hard To Take)


It's all free, though I do accept donations. Thanks!

Songs That Broke Up My Band

It wasn’t the songs, it was me. I broke up the band, with my inability to bond, my demands, and my failure to capitalize on and to realize our potential. Bitching that the guys who played some forty-plus of my songs didn’t play everything I wanted is petulant, but it makes for a good name for the show. When I started putting together the set for tonight’s show, I naturally went for songs I hadn’t played in while, the ones we’d dropped from the band’s sets. The new songs I was writing addressed the break-up on certain levels (that’s right! I’m an artist, working multiple levels! Grasp the complexity!) so now I had songs the band dropped, and songs about the breakup, as well as songs the band simply refused to do. Throw in a couple songs the band struggled with, draining much emotional capital from all sides, but eventually did play, and you’ve got “Songs That Broke Up My Band.” The name’s a lie, but then so are the songs. I turn my problems into teenage girls, and I turned the typical tale of a band felled by petty grievances and the hazards of failure into a battle over creative differences, because rock and roll is about mythmaking, not biography. The truth is that if I could take things lighter and if we could generate a fan base we’d have been fine. Only success could have ruined us then. Of course, we did succeed on some level. We performed and recorded the songs well, sometimes. Ultimately it does come back to the songs. Early on, we skipped some that “weren’t us” or just weren’t being included in the set list, that weren’t missed, by anyone but me. As we approach the later period (I know the idea that some failed band has a “later period” is more mythmaking, in a book of lore only I will read.) the resentments grow more recent, until you might guess that some of these did contribute to our problems. Oh aren’t I eating my cake and trying to keep it too! I can’t bitch about these guys, but I still do. I love those guys, but I love my songs as well. The Ks are gone, all I’ve got is the songs. Got to figure out a way to keep them alive. Thanks for coming out tonight.

This is the text from the program of the show titled: Songs That Broke Up My Band. We recorded it and I liked the results, hence this blog of free songs. Enjoy!

If you want to donate to the cause, feel free. Thanks!

Prove My Love

The band always rocked this one, and it's one of my favorites. The reason I include it is because during the period when the band couldn't learn any new songs, and me getting frustrated about it, one of the players would pull out the paper with the chords written on it, and there are just the same four chords, over and over. I was all learn the song already! This one goes out to my baby.




You can download this song for free HERE.

Here's the band rocking this song at The greatly missed Lakeside Lounge.



Prove your love with a donation!

I'm A Sexy Girl

We played this one, but we sure fought over it. I think the gender bending was a little hard to take, even for me. Am I just being ridiculous? Getting the boys to sing back-ups on "sexy girl," battling over how to end it, everything was pulling teeth. I felt I had to sing the hell out of it to get it across. Played it very straight, as it's not always fun to be a sexy girl. Got a nice new-wavey disco vibe going, with some spooky keyboard by Jon. Turned into a favorite number by at least some circle of our fans.

When I played it with The Ks I used to say "I don't want to be anybody's hootchie cootchie girl" mostly because I love that phrase "hootchie cootchie" and want to bring it back. Still it seemed an antiquated thing for a young girl to be saying, so "hootchie cootchie girl" became "little candy girl." I'm already singing about being a sexy girl, I can't revamp slang at the same time. Fight the battles one at a time.


You can get the song for free HERE.

Here's a video of the band playing it. Well, Youtube is getting dodgy, so here's a LINK to the band playing it. Hopefully I'll remember to embed it once Youtube sorts things out.

Hey I remembered! Here it is.


It would be very sexy if you supported me financially!

My Name Is Love

I'm fond of this song. The ultimate monster song. Here's a case of where success was our undoing. We'd taken this moody number, and given it a funky twist, thanks to some synthclavier sounding riff from Jon. Once we realized it was awesome, however, it was impossible to play it without putting on our funky hats. It got all fwinkthwank, and lost the spookiness. I tried to damp down the funk, which damped down the funk. We never got it back. Here's what I did with it.




You can download this for free HERE.

Here's us playing the song live. I'm wearing a quite questionable shirt.



Here's a video I made for the original studio version.



You can get the original studio version HERE.



I would love it if you supported me financially!

Was That A Joke or What Was That, A Joke?

This song won Best Rock Song in the Portland Songwriting Contest. Got a certificate and everything. It also wins the Dan Kilian award for rocking, no certificate needed. Hammers this one progression relentlessly; not everyone wanted to keep hammering away at it. A shame.




You can download this song for free HERE.
Here are some chords if you'd like to hammer away at it yourself! Was That a Joke or What Was That, a Joke?
Bm / A / G / EE/E 10x
When you sat down to eat and you opened your mouth
That's when the whole evening went south for me
Couldn't believe what you said I wanted you dead
I'll never forget what you said about me
My night was over and done I would have no more fun
Just sit stunned watch it rerun on my mental TV
Was that a joke or what
Was that a joke or what
Was that a joke or what was that?
D A/D/?(Farmer D chord slid up to the 5th fret)
Bm A G G
Was it me who egged you on?
It was me who cried 'til dawn
That dress that you put on
Bm A G / / EE/E
Ugliest you've ever worn
Bm / A / G / EE/E 14x
What you said it hurt it wasn't worth
The laughter you most certainly achieved
And you're surrounded by friends who tell you time and again
How classy you are; well honey you are being deceived
Cause when you lie to yourself there ain't no one to help
You tell the truth too loud in a crowd
What have you achieved?
Was that a joke or what
Was that a joke or what
Was that a joke or what was that?
Was that a joke or what
Was that a joke or what
Was that a joke or what was that?

It's no joke! You can support me financially!

Pumpkin Pie

A novelty song! I have to admit that when I hit a C7 chord, it always wants to sound like "Good Man Most of the Time." Someone in the audience seems to think so too. This one is more country fried, or at least baked. I think we thought it was too corny (or is it squashy?) to keep in our sets. I think it's fun though.

You can download this song for free HERE.


To compare it to "Good Man (Most of The Time)" check out this bonus video! It shows some of the public villains of the time period, and gives them some credit.


You can get Good Man (Most of the Time) and a lot of other great songs from the album The Ks Can't Get It Together.

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