www.eric-day.com

Well, it was fun while it lasted, but I clearly ran out of steam with this over the summer.  I think some cool projects came out of this experiment, but it's time to be realistic since I have so much other shit going on.  Feel free to check out my current goings-on over at www.eric-day.com.  I'm playing bass for a bunch of Broadway musicals, writing a musical with a really talented collaborator, and many more little projects to satisfy my musical scatterbrainedness!  Rock!

ZION'S LIONS

SUPES EXCITED!

About a month ago, I issued a songwriting challenge for my weekly post over at Crazytownblog, and this is the result!  Basically, the plan was to write a shameless pop song that might gain something in the direction of the 100 million + views that Rebecca Black has somehow mustered-up, scathing reviews notwithstanding.  If so, fame and fortune?  If not, at least it was more fun than playing the lottery!  Plus it inspired a long-distance collaboration with one of my best friends from high school, the multi-talented LA-based singer/actress/badass, Lynnette Li. 

A pretty big change from my more esoteric atonal piano mashup projects--funny thing is, I probably spent more time on this one!  Below is the official video (in typical ZILWAUKEE style), guaranteed to get you (or your tween nieces) fired up for summer!  Enjoy, download from iTunes (it should be available there and other sim places for a mere $.99!), spread the word, fire up!

Brubeck: Impossible

For this week, I've mashed-up two of the greatest tunes ever written in 5/4 time: Dave Brubeck's "Take 5" (1959) and the "Mission: Impossible" TV theme song (1966).  I lifted the drums/piano from my vinyl copy of "Time Out," added the MI bassline myself, and recruited my friend Guy Sion to play the melody on alto, and to add a little of his own flair to the piece.  Of course, I had to keep Joe Morello's iconically weird drum solo (mostly) intact. 

I was excited to long-distance collaborate with Guy on this one: he is a badass Israeli sax player who now lives in Norway.  We met hustling flutes and clarinets to NYC middle schoolers at a local music store a few years back.  He sent me four takes that were all killing, so it was very hard to choose--thanks Guy!

I paired it all with an excellent clip of James Bond skiing in the Alps from the beginning of "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977).  Am I the only one who has occasionally confused the "Mission: Impossible" theme for a Bond theme?  Well it is in that spirit that I pair them together here!  Free mp3.

SALT-N-PEPA VS ANTON WEBERN

An unlikely mash-up inspires Finnish disco dancing!  Free mp3.
Original sheet music from Webern's Variations for Piano, Op. 27, II (1936) below.  I used the first movement a couple months ago for this Black Flag mash-up.  Love these little atonal German piano pieces! 

BANKSHOT! (Op Ivy Cover)

For this week, I've had the pleasure of working with The Hood Internet's ABX (otherwise known as my friend and one of my oldest collaborators, Aaron)  He's one of my best bro's from college, and we've played in a few bands together, but this is our first collaboration in about 6 years, so fire up!

Aaron came to me with the idea to do a sortof chillwave version of Operation Ivy's instrumental classic, Bankshot.  He sent me an awesome first draft with a bunch of great omnichord samples, and I started adding layers of synthchoir and other fun sounds.  We tossed it back and forth until we got it just right, and then paired it up with a bunch of awesome basketball footage.

I'm more and more realizing that this was a good project for Aaron and I to tackle together.  Not only did we both play in high school ska bands with funny names (me: The Beauty School Dropouts, him: Skavation Army (where's your web presence at, dudes?)), but both of our high school ska bands did Op Ivy covers! (us: Bad Town and Unity, them: Knowledge)  Also we are both totes awesome at basketball. 

Watch/listen above, download the free mp3 here, and please enjoy!

QUEEQUEG

Back to the tunes!  I'm about 2/3 the way through Moby Dick, which I've been lovingly devouring, and I've been particularly taken by all of the Harpooneers, especially Queequeg, who is the loose inspiration for this music/video pairing.  Three more harpooneers with awesome names (Tashtego, Daggoo, and Fedallah), I smell a song cycle!  I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out, rough trombone chops and all.  Watch/listen above, free mp3 here!

ps: I started blogging over at Crazytown yesterday, and I'll be posting there on Wednesdays going forward.  Check out my first post!