June 25, 2004
arachnophobia
Though I would love it if this song were on the Spiderman 2 soundtrack, alas, it is not. This is sort of a different kind of spider.
I recorded the narration sitting on this hill behind the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale, CA last month. I was out there visiting my friend, a Yahoo! employee, and I was hanging out, reading and writing along with recording stuff, as I like to do.
It was a one take spontaneous sort of thing and that's exactly why I ended up liking it so much. I didn't know if I would use it for anything - had no plan whatsoever - but when I listened again later there was something about it that stuck with me. Something both dark and funny; poorly thought out yet engaging; bizarre though somehow easily identifiable. At least that is how I felt about it. You might feel differently. Let me know!
These will really help:
What use are cats if they can't even kill a spider?
good question
What do you use to record stuff in the field?
NOMAD Jukebox3 - it's an mp3 player and will record to wav and mp3 formats in various resolutions. With a pair of stereo binaural mics and a preamp, I can make some decent recordings. It's a little big to conveniently carry around in my pocket, but it quite transportable nonetheless. I wish the iPod would let me record.
I want my own spider. Where can I get one?
Chances are you already have a few(!) Just look harder...
Is it normal behavior to sing to a spider?
No
Fun! This one has hints of The Flaming Lips, They Might Be Giants or Steve Burns-style playfulness. (Did you secretly collaborate with Steve Drozd??) Very catchy. My own cadre of spiders surely would dance if I were kind enough to let them listen. AND your song still has great depth to it, as it explores a fundamental question of human nature: are we furtive spider squishing people, exerting our immense power to thwart creepy crawly fuzzy-legged critters just because they inspire dread (and because we *can* squish them), or is it possible for us to learn to live in harmony with the talented spinners of silken webs?
I have to say that I really like the refrain “what do you want me to do with you?” -- I think it has applications far beyond the spider interaction context. Off the top of my head, it makes me think of overly eager begging dogs, ostensibly attention-starved cats, hangers-on in general, etc.
At least one question lingers: is it just my imagination, or do I hear some spider-squishing sounds in your song? If so, is the artist deliberately revealing the dark side of his spider-squishing soul here, masquerading in a fun upbeat tune with catchy beat and lyrics? Hmmm...
no spiders were harmed in the making of this song
Posted by: halsey at June 25, 2004 01:54 PMLove it! I just downloaded this and every other song from your website. Great work - very hard to categorize. Being an organization-freak, I try to assign a "Genre" to every song in my iTunes Library. Yours definitely had me scratching my head! :-)
Posted by: hypert at December 29, 2004 01:20 PMhypert-
Thanks for the kind comments and your voracious downloading. I am glad that you find my music to somehow be genre-less, or at least non-genre-obvious. I checked out your site as well and enjoyed perusing the significant amount of resources you have compiled; thanks for that.
If you see this comment, send me a note through the 'contact me' link above. I have some questions for you.
-Halsey
