Friday, August 15, 2008

Buddha Jones reunion


Been a while since my last post, but I've been crazy-busy on some exciting new things -- major announcements soon if you haven't heard them already.

In the meantime, I've been making time for some fun diversions, not the least of which was a get-together with Dave Rees and Jeremy Williams, the two talented musicians who joined me in my first band, Buddha Jones. Back in 2000 -- before the Dubya years, can you believe it? -- we recorded a bunch of cute little songs and pressed an album that embarrasses me to this very day.

While not exactly a band that lit the world on fire -- our only performance was a party at Jeremy's house -- Buddha Jones was great fun for us and an educational first step in my own journey toward what would eventually be a full-scale, gig-playing rock band.

So it was great to get Dave and Jeremy back in a room for an afternoon to mess around with guitars, bass, a drum kit, and a digital four-track recorder. The illustrious Mr. Rees (pictured above) brings the mad guitar chops, Jeremy the percussion powers, while I contribute only the slightest hint of musical ability and a happy talent for the occasional catchy hook.

In the span of a few hours, we recorded:

An R&B "I wanna sex you up" type crooner. Hot stuff -- it even includes the line, "I love you girl, and wanna do you right." High hilarity, especially since I managed to more-or-less approximate the generic basso profundo pimp voice that makes those songs such enduring classics.

The frame for a pop-punk anthem. By "frame" I mean the chords and arrangement for a song, with placeholder vocal-gobbledygook in place of final lyrics. It's not exactly Green Day, but there's a hook there and a cool little tune if we ever return to it in earnest.

A hip-hop cover of The Roots' "Respond/React": What's this? An R&B pimpin' song and a cover of a rap classic? What can I say, we must have been in a mood to "keep it real." Real white, that is.

And, last but not least: A bona fide, nicely arranged acoustic folk-rock song with lyrics ready to go as soon as I can make time to get over to Jeremy's studio and record them. Buddha Jones back from the grave? I doubt it, but a rockin' fun Sunday in any case.

4 comments:

Moe.on.the.Moor said...

I love Buddha Jones!!! I'm def. ready for album #2.

I don't think 'cute' is the best description for the sound on that first album, however. Let's go over some of the lyrics, which I have fully memorized like any good fan: "Mom said she'd have loved me if I only behaved more like a son..."; "I know one day we'll all be gobbled up [or is it blotted out?] by the sun..."; "Honey I know you're gonna quit smoking soon, along with extasy, crystal meth and mushrooms"; And I can't quote the exact lyric, but there's def. something about "beating my woman down".

Of course, there were some cute-ish lyrics peppered in there: like "I don't drive a Mercedes, but there's one in my parking spot..." and "You got bored with NYC, you got bored with L.A., you got bored in San Fransico, where you bored at today?" -- but even those come from two gloomy, but wonderful, tunes.

Loved it, but hope the songs in the works convey happier thoughts in these darker times!

rakiel said...

well he couldn't have been talking about his real mom........ mom

Daniel Morris said...

Those were blues song -- of course the lyrics had to be about the blues!

Anonymous said...

I still have your first album in MP3 form. I got it through the future underground.