Your Monthly Jesty Song Fix
July 08
Any song that has any kind of merit usually functions on a few different levels. I'm not tooting my own horn here, I'm just saying that I think most songs that are effective are the ones that are open to interpretation. When writing this song and in reviewing it personally a few times I realize there's only a few layers to this song overall, so maybe it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread. At face value you can just listen to it and go "oh this is a song about someone who is lusting after someone else" and you can leave it at that, or, there's the deeper more conflicted tone of someone who is striving to be more spiritually minded, striving to focus on the kind of thinking that elevates those around him or her, and is astounded by how easily they get thrown off of that whole plain of thought by the site of someone's legs or eyes or whatever physical things draws them in. Yes, this song is based around myself, it's also based on some things I heard about Marvin Gaye, and roughly inspired by Bjork, the Beatles, and XTC. though I don't know if you'll hear any of that when you listen to it. But throw that in a bucket and call it a value meal. Or don't, cause I mean, gas prices.
June 08
Pull your Heart out of your Ass
this is my Hank Williams Tribute. I listened to him an awful lot on the tour. It was crazy good. Since I can't take anything seriously, here's what I came up with after listening to Hank for a bit to long apparently.
this is a short number I wrote a few days ago. I'm seriously considering putting out a record with only minute long or less songs cause these days I'm finding I can say everything I need to say in a very small amount of time these days. I'm not so much writing the epics these days. Maybe it'll come around full circle and I'll surprise you all with 19 minute epics sooner or later. In any case you're getting two songs this month because this one is short, and the other one is silly. So somehow in my head that works out. I hope you think so too.
May 08
I don't know what bumps a song off of a record. When there's no big wigs telling you to come up with a hit single there's really no reason to take a song that you like and pull it off a record. But then again, sometimes you listen to a song so much you realize that it's just not meant to be with the other songs. I don't know. Bottom line is I made this song using a bunch of drum loops and the rule that I could play the guitar, but I could only play single notes. I think it worked to a degree. I like the song, the mix is a bit on the bassy side (it kicks in the chorus so be warned). I remember leaving a party cause I was suddenly hit with the impulse to write and record the middle section of the song. So, that's the deal there. enjoy.
March 08/April 08
Finally, Joshua Jesty is February (click to open)
it's a record, that I made during February. I had to finish it off in early March due to a. laziness and b. having a cold that made me sound like tom waits with extra glass in my throat. In any case, here it is, raw and not fully realized, but as realized as the month of February would allow.
February 08
somehow I think I've managed to write a love song as well as a death song all in one, my love style determines my death style? This is one of those numbers that has been kicking around in my head for sometime. It's funny how some songs will just pop in and allow you one instant to capture them and how some songs want to just hang out in your head, take bits and pieces from conversations and events and gradually take shape into something that you sing in your head over and over and over until you think your brain will explode because you've just heard the song more times then the last Creed single that drove you dangerously close to a murderous rage. Yet you put it on tape and it still sounds fresh, or at least it did to me. Enjoy.
January 08
here's a cover of an INXS song off of their "welcome to wherever you are" record. It's one of the first few things I adapted for my solo shows and my dude Matt said he liked it so I figured I'd record a take and throw it up here for you all to enjoy.
a collage of different sounds and structures that was originally aiming in a completely different direction. I had the ending section tracked for some time to go with another song I was working on for this is exploding, but I ended up taking the section and adding a front to it with a different twist.
Mid December 07
here's the Christmas music I promised earlier in the month. I try to stay true to my word, and while I thought I'd have a few more loosely themed Christmas songs to post these two feel sufficient to me right now, so enjoy my special Christmas song "It's Christmas Time!" and my take on "Silent Night". Have a great holiday season, regardless how much you are or aren't feeling the whole Christmas thing.
December 07
I'm going to wait till the middle of the month to post some holiday themed music, till then, enjoy this awful wrap song which is supposed to sound dirty, but is not dirty in any way what so ever (rated pg-13 for ridiculous innuendo and some swearing)
November 07
\The Pinkerton Show as performed by this is exploding
1. Tired of Sex
2. Getchoo
3. No Other One
4. Why Bother?
7. El Scorcho
10. Butterfly
here it is. A few of you folks from out of state wanted to know what it sounded like, so with blemishes and all, here's what happened last wednesday night on Halloween while you were passing out candy wishing you could be dancing to this is exploding playing all of weezers pinkerton. Since this was my primary focus the month of October I figured it was a fitting thing for the song of the month. If the folks from the weezer camp don't like this much at all then just email me at joshua@thisisexploding.com and I'll put an end to it. Till then, enjoy.
October 07
despite the temporary nature of the mess we're in
the inspiration for this song comes from but is not limited to two important factors. 1. seeing a few people cry 2. thinking about those two really short but absolutely complete and great songs on Coldplay's "parachutes". The guitar part came to me while I was fiddling around late night a month ago, and part of me really wanted to make it a big epic ballad type song with that whole verse chorus verse chorus big middle section deal. Then it occurred to me that I could say exactly what I needed without all that filler so I shortened it down. I only had a few of the words defined when I went to record it, and I learned an important lesson. Even though you wrote it on the lyric sheet it doesn't mean you have to use it. I ended up cutting a ton of lyrics out of the original lyric sheet and then ended up rewriting a bunch of the lyrics on the spot while recording cause it just didn't sound right the way it was originally written. I remember writing songs in the past and thinking they were done just because I had the lyrics already written out. Not so much. Sometimes it's complete in the first draft, but you won't really know until you listen. So now you've got a description of a song that's ten times as long as the song itself. I know, I know. Now so do you, and then some.
Double Play Edition!
written using the syllables of some ones name in a very quick fashion. I really liked it when I wrote it, now I'm not 100% sure of it. I guess I'll have to let it pan out a little more. I recorded a late night solo acoustic and vocal demo of it into my cell phone the night I wrote it and I think that had a little better energy then this studio recording, but hey, it happens. Dan Price drums on this take.
here's me playing with vocal samples and running lots of effects over things. I almost had the song completely done with bass and vocals, but in the end I threw drums and guitar on as well, and I don't think it suffers from the extra tracks. I must've recorded this one at the beginning of summer and then completely forgot about it cause I just found it a few weeks back. So before it slips my mind again, here you go.
archive of past months
this was an all nighter. Musically speaking it was layer after layer of little things, and I'm really happy with it. Lyrically it's taken from one of 15 different poems/sets of lyrics that I wrote on another late night in a fit of creativity. As the music wrapped around the lyrics I realized it changed the initial meaning that the words held for me, but I'm just as happy if not more so with the end result