Listen to "Rembrance." When reading Schleiermacher, I was reminded of my friend Steve Petrinko, who was my main cohort in my college band The MayTricks (previously covered in a number of music blog posts). Working in close proximity like that at that time of life (we were also apartment-mates for a couple of years) meant lots of philosophy discussions, and being young and  Continue Reading …

As I hit the big 30 here, let me thank you for your indulgence, to the extent that you've actually been reading/listening. I'm marking this round number with another whole album, this time the debut full album by The MayTricks from 1992, cleverly entitled The MayTricks. As this was really the first full-length album I worked on, it definitely has a special place with me, as  Continue Reading …

At last, here's the final tune from the 1991 MayTricks demo (which I've made a new page for), "Her Skin Is Only Warm." The song was written by Steve and was our most bombastic. It was modeled on The Rolling Stones's "Steel Wheels" album, meaning it has kind of awkward "Rock! Rock!" lyrics, but it was actually describing a particular situation where Steve's roommate had a  Continue Reading …

Three songs today: cover tunes by The MayTricks from 1992 or so. Specifically, the Police's "Can't Stand Losin' You" (which I sing) and Talking Heads' "And She Was" and The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" (both of which Steve sings). These are actual, multi-track studio recordings done with probably as much care as many of our actual album tracks, recorded as part of a demo  Continue Reading …

Correcting my previous post, apparently this is my first recorded original composition: "The Funny Train." While I had always assumed this to be a traditional melody, a quick web search reveals no previous versions, so I hereby claim it. However, I note that "There was a little man, and he had a little can" appeared previously in a prohibition-era song called "No More  Continue Reading …

At the half way point of this 2010 experiment, I've got something very special to post: my first ever intentional recording of a song, which was also my first experience playing with a band that I put together. It's from spring '86 and called "Venus on Earth." I had some little music composition program on my Apple IIe that let me type in notes and play them back to me, and  Continue Reading …

Today I present the crown jewel of my high school band years: The Spring '89 version of "Run Away." I've previously blogged about this song, which is pretty cheesy, but pleasurable, I think. This version owes a lot to the keyboard programming of the last couple of albums by The Cars (my favorite band at the time). The story of The Backdrop, the band that gave rise to this,  Continue Reading …

My computer no longer boots and is in the shop, which means I'm on my wife's MacBook, which means it's time for more camcorder youtube uploads! Here's a version of "Love Is the Problem:" http://www.youtube.com/user/MLinsenmayer#p/a/u/0/e0LblloTUnc We (my band New People) recently played a very big show at Madison's Brat Fest, on the "Quench Gum" stage, which I honored by  Continue Reading …

I felt bad enough about posting the previous tune that I spent a bit more time and "polished" up another two old clunkers from the same pile, because mom always told me "If you do something bad, do more of that same thing to make up for it." So, first, a very old (1988) demo called "A Little Feeling." This is a piano tune, which was and is rare for me, inspired, I think, by  Continue Reading …

To apologize for many weeks now of old (i.e. poorly recorded) and (in the case of the "classical pieces") near unlistenable material, I've now newly encoded and posted the entirety of my "Mark Lint and the Fake Johnson Trio" album: http://marklint.com/FJTalbum.html. This is probably my single strongest collection of tunes. The recording quality is decent (i.e. digital  Continue Reading …

Continuing this thread, a multi-movement horn trio: "Ron Visits the Land of Insanity." I think these undoubtedly very talented music school players practiced this once together before coming into my class to try to get through this, and I put them through some mighty indignities including trombone parts written much too low and choreographed coughing. I see I'm going for a  Continue Reading …

Here's another, earlier music composition class piece of weirdness: "Argument Leading to Death." I'm thinking now that my week 19 entry was likely from the early spring of 1993, while this one was from late fall of 1992 in the previous semester's class. I think I decided it would require less effort this time around if for the class performance I just brought in a tape of  Continue Reading …

This week I've dived into digitizing old cassette tapes and waded through a couple of unlistenable options before coming across this thing that you might find interesting. "What happens in music composition class stays in music composition class," goes the old saying, but I'm letting out some of the hell: a song called "Patriotism," composed in (I think) 1992 and performed in  Continue Reading …

...Almost done polishing the turd that is this old demo. Here's a Pink Floyd-y song of mine called "To Valerie," written for a girl by that name in my second month or so of college (fall of '89). I believe it was elicited when I went to knock on her dorm room and a male voice said "Go away!" so I went and recorded a demo of this by myself and delivered the tape to her room  Continue Reading …

This week I give you an entire album from my murky past: "So Chewy" by the MayTricks (no, that movie had not come out when this band existed, so that name isn't as awful as it seems, though it's not so good, I think; any band name you have to spell for people is bad news). It was recorded in the summer of 1993, just after most of us had graduated college. This is that band's  Continue Reading …