Partially Naked Self-Examination Music Blog, Week 7

Here's another new recording: "Ann(e)."

It's a pretty old song, written I think late in 1991, back when I was in a psychedlic band called The MayTricks, and though the recording is entirely new (OK, I started the click track and the acoustic guitar back in 2000, i.e. this is another tune destined for the "Cheese Stands Alone" album), the ethic and even the recording technique are MayTricks, with my co-frontman from that period, Steve Petrinko, chiming in on drums and the heavy distortion guitar part. I experimented a bit on this, bringing back my cheesy 80s keyboard that hasn't been operational in a while and recording my first electric guitar part in a long time, and some of the psychedelic effects plugins--on the vocals at the end and on Steve's guitar and the keys--are new to me.

What is the song about and why does its title have parentheses in it? Well, this was about finding yourself attracted to multiple people of the same physical type, possibly the same type as your ex. The lyrics exaggerate the situation a lot from there. The verses somewhat embarrassingly play up the verbal similarity of various rhyming names (putting the "Ann" or "Anne" in "Dianne" as if this implied that one woman can stand in for another), and the chorus betrays the fact that I'd been reading too much philosophy:

Dim sentimental monism or an unhealthy grieving for the long gone
Or a mean, shallow way to use people or a fine strategy to move on
Or a general desire to capture the moment or a desperate attempt to feel secure
Or a vicious betrayal of the others and the self
Or religious sublimation, I’m just not sure

So there's that. I'd put off recording this for so long because I wanted it to be BIG and didn't really know how to do that, and I'm not sure I entirely succeeded here, but it was pretty fun trying, and certainly great to work (at a distance) with Steve again, who I'll hopefully drag in for more of these new recordings.

by