hudsonrunway-blog - Tumblr blog

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I wrote this as I was leaving New York. I was feeling pretty bummed out and nostalgic about leaving all the friends I had there, and it got me thinking about friends I had throughout my life. 

My two oldest friends are Matt and Kurt. We’ve been friends since Kindergarten and have subsequently been the Best Men at each other’s weddings. This song is an overture to them/our friendship that’s lasted many years and spanned many miles. I never quite settled on a synth riff for the song or managed to really nail the punk vibe I was going for, but ran out of time. Steve plays drums. Thanks old friend! 

“

When I was a little boy I spent my time tickling the ivories 

Had wood in my head and fire in my heart so I moved to New York City

But it wasn't long before the city walls came tumbling down on me

And my friends back home wondered why I'd gone just to live so unhappily

But it's alright we're still tight my old friends

One day soon, I’ll be seeing you again

When he was a little boy my old friend didn't care much about the rules 

Chose fight over flight, Ate hearts with a knife, Drank freedom like a drunken fool

Then one day he got all growed up, And used the rules to make his hay

Moved down south to San Diego, and made himself a DA

But that’s alright, we're still tight, my old friends

When he was a little boy my old friend, Used to overuse his brain

Had a mind like a trap, Was the legend on the map

But it drove him a little insane

Then one day he got all grown up, And used his mind to make his hay

Took the exits all the way to Texas, And now he builds aeroplanes

But it's alright we're still tight, My old friends

One day soon I’ll be seeing you again

Do I miss them, I do, I hope to see them one day soon

Now I'm not a little boy but I am sure that the moment is at hand

To head back out onto the road

And journey to a different land

Like a swallow I will follow the current currents of the wind

But a swallow never forgets his flock and always remembers where he's been

It's alright I'm still tight my old friends

One day soon I’ll be seeing them again

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This is probably one of my favorite songs that never made an “album”. It’s about dealing with a pretty oppressive drive for earthly achievement and a dissonant belief that none of it will lead to any sort of glorious afterlife.

The lyrics are pretty melodramatic, but water feeding the fire is sort of like telling a super angry person to “calm down!” it only makes it worse. It’s meant to represent a flow state experienced when vigorously pursuing a goal.

The song itself is almost unaltered from the day I first recorded it. It’s pretty damn long for me so my efforts to spruce it up always seemed forced or lacking. It maintains a super simple heartbeat with a lot of guitar and organ.  

“When the water feeds the fire, the glow pushes through my teeth. 

Waves of blood that boil and crash and gasp up into steam

Send me peace before I die, Death is too simple for me

When water feeds the fire music sails like ashes. 

Craving the sun as the blues craves love.

Send me peace before I die, Death is too simple for me

Break against my heart like the lighthouse on a rock, 

and watch the waves scream up into the sky 

When the deep cold blue holds nothing for you

Only soul and the fire survives Send me peace before I die, Heaven's too simple for me

It does subside and I in kind, Return and I resign to lie

I hold it in choke it thin, Hide away my squall,

Slither myself round its neck and squeeze until I fall

Pull until my lungs are empty, caskets of resolve,

Bury them with shaking hands, I've nothing left to stay the squall Send me peace before I die, heaven's too bright for me. 

blackest night is paradise for torch with endless sene.

When water heals the fire, life curls at your feet. 

Laps upon your shores and heads for final sleep.

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This was a promotional video I made for a Señors single way back in 2009. Limited to four chords but some interesting pseudo sloppy ragtime. 

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I made this video for our song “Telling Lies”, a song we wrote way back in the day when we were still angsty about the way George W. Bush was running the country. The pretty clear climate change theme on the video makes it feel a little more relevant nowadays.

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This was my last practice session before playing this at a Christmas Eve service for our local church. I tried some forms of this combo in my band HolidayHoliday for a couple songs. Definitely over-stretched my brain, but fun to experiment with.

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Graham and I wrote this Christmas cover for a compilation album of local indie bands doing holiday tunes. I think it’s actually a really interesting take on the awesome original.

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I made this video of Graham and I playing “Here In NY” back in our Brooklyn apt. Apparently, back in the olden days, the only things we had to play with on static videos were cheap lens filters. 

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I wrote this on my trip through China in 2011. I was lucky enough to spend about a month visiting about 5 Chinese cities - all of which demonstrated the amazing transformation China was going through. It was like a surreal version of America in the early 1900′s... the country was beyond bustling. It was coming alive with prosperity. And though I saw many fabulously wealthy Chinese citizens, I also saw many people living in such abject poverty that it honestly made the homeless in 21st century America look privileged.

Many of the Chinese in the cities drove luxury cars but clearly had very little practice... the traffic was so hilariously disorganized that our tour bus often had to screech to a halt to accommodate some random Mercedes coming at us head on before it awkwardly swerved back into its proper lane.

In light of all this, there was an unmistakable thru line in our tour guides’ descriptions of the country: everyone was better off than they were 10 years before, but the country was super corrupt (we had to bribe even low ranking officials at nearly tour stop) and only some people were becoming extraordinarily wealthy... The guides made clear that the way the super rich treated others in making and keeping their wealth was completely at odds with the traditional Chinese collectivist values.

I wrote the lyrics to capture this from the perspective of one of our tour guides talking to his lover. The music has an American country vibe (a genre well suited to take on the populist message) and is mixed with wacky synths to represent the frenetic plastic futurism of the Chinese drive for prosperity.

“They got the money but the money is all they got

We got the people singing dancing the Yangtze River Rock

And there's a pie in the sky but you can't get a slice

Because the cook is a crook and you don’t got a bribe

They got the money but ain't it funny 

They aint any happier than you

They got the money but it doesn't make em happier than what I am when I'm with you

They got money cause the money is all they want

They want to wear it up fancy and eat it all raw

But the silk in their scarves and the fins in their bowls 

Can't keep ‘em warm cause their soul is gone cold

They got the money but ain't it funny 

They aren't any better off than you

The got the money but it doesn't make em happier than what I am when I'm with you You say goodbye and I say néehow

Smile so wide, I don’t know how...

They got the money but the money is all they got 

We got the people sing and dancing the Yellow River Rock

And there's a song in our heart and a beer in our hand 

So let's show them how we do when we strike up the band

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This is the original musical take on the lyrics in “Find My Love”. Unlike the low key R&B vibe of Find My Love, this one is hot and agitated. It’s got banjo, piano, and some pretty fuzzy vocals. I think it does a good job communicating the angst behind it the concept, if a little rough with the execution. It takes a few risks in structure (probably not at all risky but compared to my normal highly formulaic method it does).

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This is the second version of a the original song about the way porn messes with real relationships and how virtual interactions are stunting and probably altering the wiring of our brains. Musically, this is the yin to the Version 1 yang and has a much less agitated and smoother quasi-R&B feel to it. 

“Sit, flip the switch and I'm ready to go on my rocket I'm a spaceman laced and strapped for the show, just wanna watch it Dreams from me, flow like honey and drip down to the floor And then I fester like an orchestra warming up the show

Why won't you come to find my love, I see you up so close but are so far away

Why won't you come to find my love, I hold you in my arms but I can only feel myself

So I sleep like a sheep but a wolf is how I dream                                         Fantasies that can never be and it saps my soul but it takes my pain away like Makes me feel so empty. Like a glass in a glass, I'm still empty. There she is so beautiful for spacious skies and lonely eyes

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I wrote this demo about PTSD suffered by war veterans. My Uncle fought in Vietnam and still grapples with the trauma he endured in his service, and I think a lot about him and several other veterans in my family who have fought in recent wars. 

Historians and anthropologists now know that even in the earliest human conflicts, all the physical and mental training soldiers received was completely inadequate to prepare them for the true horrors of warfare. And as far back as Ancient Greece and Ancient China, soldiers often exhibited the exact same suite of behaviors we today refer to as ‘PTSD’.

From a developmental perspective, PTSD “makes sense” to me. Despite any military training - a healthy human brain, raised in a loving family environment, should have a difficult time processing a situation requiring the murder of other human beings. A happy healthy person should not quickly adapt to witnessing the maiming or traumatic death of close friends. A healthy brain should not easily digest the guilt/shame/anger from the countless terrible acts that all wars drive soldiers to commit or witness. 

Given the history of warfare and what we are now learning about the human mind, PTSD seems like a completely understandable outcome from sending emotionally healthy human beings into the most emotionally devastating environment possible. 

“how does it feel with a gun in your face

do you hear at all the sound it makes

in the length between the barrel and your eye

do you see at all what it's like to die

and how does it feel with a gun in your mouth

do you salivate or try to spit it out

in the time between the bullet and your mind

do you think at all what it's like to die

and how does it feel with a gun in your hand 

to make it all happen to another man

in the space between a point and a squeeze

and how does it feel to come back home

to a place where you are now alone

in the dark between deed and right

how could you have known what it's like to fight

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This is one of my favorite songs we recorded with likely my favorite video I made. It’s a love letter to New York City and all the people I grew to know and love there.

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This is a hilarious Red Bull commercial -or music video- I made for my Disney Electric Parade of a song Ode to the Man. It’s a shameless ripoff of extreme sports footage mashed up with footage of my family on a rollercoaster and me playing piano at my local assisted living facility. It’s probably safe to say this mashup has never before been attempted. Probably with good reason.

I don’t remember why I decided to do it this way, but too late, it’s a thing now.

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This is a second musical take on “Father O’dious” with different instrumentation. Acoustic bass, guitar, and organ instead of the piano and drums of the original. The second generation lyrics are about an unhealthy relationship based only on physical attraction.

“She’s got my tiger by the tail, for the lion’s share of my night 

It's not a healthy interaction

But I got her smoke and she's got my light

I'm guilty as a pleasure but she's a jury bought and bribed

It's not an honest interaction

But I got her smoke and she's got my light

And I’m her man cause my hands on a microphone and she's my girl cause she's a fan of delight

It's not a peaceful interaction 

But I got her smoke and she's got my light

Oh so we dance dance

Our lantern burns under the bushel

The shadows jig and jive

The time we share is made aware

To no one who's alive

It tears me down as paper but it grows me like a tree

In a forest dying of loneliness she the fire that sets me free

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This is one of my favorite chord progressions of all time. I have no idea why. Sam Smith uses a version of it in I’m Not the Only One - and I love that song despite no connection to the lyrics. The drums randomly come in half-way through this song - was planning on putting them throughout, but ran out of time. 

I’m actually rather fond of the lyrics too. It’s basically a snarky takedown of child molesting priests. As someone who went to church for my entire childhood and adolescence I’m keenly aware of the power these guys abused, and it made me pretty upset. The entire system/requirements to be a Catholic priest are so terribly suited for modern times. Sometimes it’s just amazing how much inertia these religious bureaucracies have. 

Like, hey. Your priests are molesting little boys. Globally. Routinely. Maybe you should address the issue with more than moving them to other churches. 

In any case, the song starts out at a sort of introductory meeting of new church youth and moves forward from there. Ends up blaming Father but really the church that created/ refuses to change a system that breeds this terrible behavior. 

“How y'all doin tonight? You boys sure look all right.

Oh the stories we could write! 

Just follow me back, we're gonna get up, gonna get right.

Come boy into the light, I got it shining for you shining so bright. 

It may blind you but it's wholly right. Father loves what Father does... Father O’Dious

And I'm a man cause my hand’s on a microphone, and you're a kid cause you're standing around. 

So move your feet lad, the fun that we have will run all over town.

Bow your head and let us pray, It's the Word - don't speak a word I say. 

Father likes it done this way. We're gonna stay up gonna stay out gonna stay right.

And I'm a lonely lonely sad and broken bitter motherfucker and I ain't got much to loose.

But it's us lonely lonely sad and broken bitter motherfuckers that you chose when you had to choose.

Oh dance dance (Don't tell no one)

The feelings left like dancing steps pressed deeply into snow. 

Just can't forget our Father and his holy microphone.

The man, you see, was a businessman working all alone. 

And loneliness is godliness in the business of saving souls.

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Steve, Graham, and I lived with our drumset, piano, and amps in the living room, mostly mic’d up and ready to record any jam session. Looking back, this was a huge incentive to play and I think our music really benefitted from the setup. This recording was an organic session we recorded one morning. 

I later edited some videos of various rockets launching into space to match the music. It took quite a while to pull off, but I like the way it turned out.

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This song was super spontaneous and fun to write. My roommate/drummer Steve and I were walking through the Fort Greene Park on one of the first warm days of Spring in Brooklyn and saw a couple girls doing really crazy hula hoop routines. It was probably due to our long winter hibernation, but we were totally mesmerized. We immediately went back to the house and recorded this song. Steve is on drums. 

“So I walk through the park with my dog cause it's what I do

When I'm free enough to live a little I'm a little lovin' fool

Between the trees I can see you are dancing with your hula hoop

hula hoop hula hoop hula hoop You look alive like a sprite bottle shook up tight I wanna open you up just to see what might happen to you, see whatcha do So me and Steve referee cause you're out here to play and a hula-a-day keeps the doctor away How do you do whatcha do? And the sun says hell yes spring is here Real birds don't tweet online. but the only place I wanna be is here watchin' you, hula hoop It goes 'round and 'round