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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Love Came Calling

One of my favorite songs I've written. I think we just found it too Jazzy with The Ks. Never recorded it in the studio, which is a shame, because Soup and Ray traded off some 8s or some such term towards the end. I enjoy how this song has an intro which becomes the bridge. Whether that fact makes those terms meaningless or not, it makes for an interesting song structure.




You can download this song for free HERE.

Here are some chords and lyrics, so you can play it yourself!

Love Came Calling Zombies meets the Ramones (Troggs meets Ray Charles.)
Gm7 Cm7 Am D7 Am7 Bbm7 FIRST VERSE
Bm7 Dm7 B7 B7
F# E D C#7 N/C 2X CHORUS
F# E D C#7 MIDDLE
VERSE
AND CHORUS AGAIN
Gm7 Cm7 Am D7 Am7 Bbm7 MIDDLE 8
Bm7 Dm7 B7 B7
F# E D C#7 N/C 2X CHORUS TO END
Love Came Calling Zombies meets the Ramones (Troggs meets Ray Charles.)
Gm7 Cm7 Am D7 Am7 Bbm7 FIRST VERSE
Love came calling so you know I’m bawling now
Bm7 Dm7 B7 B7
Love rang on my bell. I opened it up and it snatched me to hell
F# E D C#7 N/C
Love came calling love came calling love came calling and when love calls you must answer
Love came calling love came calling love came calling and when love calls you must answer
F# E D C#
Love got next to me promising ecstasy
The smell of perfume a swish of hair suddenly she’s sitting right there
I pulled up a stool since then I’ve been history’s biggest fool
F# E D C#7 N/C
Love came calling love came calling love came calling and when love calls you must answer
Love came calling love came calling love came calling and when love calls you must answer
Gm7 Cm7 Am D7 Am7 Bbm MIDDLE 8
Love came calling. She went walking out that door
Bm7 Dm7 B7 B7
I couldn’t feel too surprised You see I’ve seen it all before
F# E D C#7
Love came calling love came calling Love don’t call for free
Love came calling love came calling Only this time not for me
Love came calling love came calling And I can’t blame her
‘cause when F# E D C#7 N/C
Love come calling love come calling love come calling and when love calls you must answer
Love came calling love came calling love came calling and when love calls you must answer
Etc.

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Baby Why Your Eyes So Wild?

This one we only played in early sets. I think we found it too swingy, or we simply had too many songs. This didn't break up the band, but it's a nice number I hadn't played in a while. Some good audience talk about my brother's trip to New Jersey.

You can download this song for free HERE.

Here's a video for the original studio version of the song, from the album Skunk.


Recording that album was what broke up that version of the band, but that's a different tale! You can get Skunk (featuring great songs like this one, "Shiraqin"; "Turn It Up"; and "Why I Look At Girls On The Train.") HERE.

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Good Help Is Hard To Find

Here's a song I either wrote about the situation with the band or I wrote and then decided it might be about that. Songs are like knights, they move two squares over, one square the other way, and they jump around the other pieces. My philosophy of songwriting is "Turn your problems into teenage girls." In this case I turned my problems into the headmistress at some Downton Abby type estate. Looking for that commercial appeal!

Sometimes the pieces play themselves, and the knight jumps back (look for the chess related blog Chessboard Bastards, coming soon!) Is this song about a band, or a lover? If it's about the band, is it from my point of view, or the view of the players? Which good help is hard to find?



You can get this song for free HERE.

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It's Only a Heart Attack

This may actually have been the song that broke up the band. After the final dying attempt to make "Seething" and "A Broken Nose (Is Worse Than A Broken Heart)" I was hoping to throw the boys a rocker, but it was not universally well received within the band. It goes around a couple extra bars, and hits a couple chords regularly. A weirdly shaped tune. I was and am still convinced the song works. I was so convinced and defensive I became quite twitchy in rehearsal, and became unpleasant to be around. I'm over it now. Of course, so is the band.

You can download this song for free HERE.

Hey! A bonus track! I made a rough demo for the band. You can get it for free HERE.

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Seething

Here's seething!



You can download this song for free HERE. This is the song I thought would complement all our short, punchy rockers with something more brooding and atmospheric. Six months later we were still bumping our heads against the wall with it. I was adamant that we at least learn how to play the thing through before abandoning it. Stubborn, aren't I? Every now and then I'd grab a guitar and play it solo, to prove that it could sound like a song. Pretty sure every time I did this I played the wrong chords on the second verse. Probably didn't help.

I get what I think is a neat phasey-reverby effect here by keeping the volume of the video recording up along with the recording from the show, and they're slightly off from each other.

When I was performing this song, I became distracted by the realization that my coworker who nicely came to see me perform, had brought her husband, a retired police officer. So, in the very beginning of my brooding building song, I decided to break the mood with an ad-lib about apologizing to the police. I was pleased with the performance overall but hated that ad-lib, so I've edited it out. Can you tell? I think it's a nice edit, but it's probably crude.

For you completists, and let's face it, if you're checking out this website you're already something of a Dan Kilian completist (even liking me a little makes you a superfan.)here's the version with the ad-lib unedited.



You can get the completists-only unedited version of "Seething" HERE.

As always, the artistic furtherence of all my artistic ventures is dependent on the contributions of those who can contribute. Thank you!

A Broken Nose (Is Worse Than A Broken Heart)

Here's a funny countryish song, with a lesson, learned the hard way, multiple times.



You can download "A Broken Nose (Is Worse Than A Broken Heart)" for free HERE.

Jeff saw me play this solo and said we had to learn it, and we tried. I think we over-thought the rhythm parts (It's hard for me to say "just shuffle the damn thing" when someone wants to be creative, but that's what I should have demanded. Maybe I did, which probably didn't help.) and we never learned all the chords. There are a lot of chords for country. I don't make things easy.

As far as the song itself, I think it's the same lesson Orwell gives us at the end of 1984. There is nothing worse than physical pain. Next time someone hurts your feelings, hit yourself in the hand with a hammer, and you'll have it all in perspective.