Fucked Up Shit

The theme for my set tonight at Travonna Coffee House will be "fucked up shit."

First, I'm going to play NYC because it's about all the fucked up shit I saw in New York City.  Then, 1493, which is about the fucked up shit that Christopher Columbus did, like instructing people to obey his god or die in a language they couldn't understand and then recusing himself for all guilt because he had given them fair warning.

I'm also going to play one I just finished today which I haven't named yet... I'll call it... My Great Grandson.  Folks, you just witnessed the live naming of a song.  (Part of the goal of this blog that I never write is to give you a glimpse into my process.)

After that it will be time to ruminate on all this fucked up shit, so I'll play You Have to be Kidding by the Flaming Lips.  It's an excellent ode to the disbelief that fucked up shit can cause the un-fucked up among us.

Finally, we'll all have had enough of all this fucked up shit, so I'm going to finish the set with War No More, in which I promise not to sing about fucked up shit while singing about fucked up shit.  I'm sure the irony will not be lost on a savvy listener like yourself.

The fucked up shit will kick itself off around 9ish on North High between 4th and 5th.

Khananirvana

Since we started this leg of traveling, I’ve played on the streets, in the homes of couch surfing hosts, and in the common areas of a few guesthouses. But tonight we actually found the open mic we’ve been looking for. We’re in McCleod Ganj, and the place was a vegetarian café called Khananirvana, about 200 meters from the residence of the Dalai Lama.

One thing I’ve been really impressed about lately: in NYC, there were a lot of musicians and there was a lot of ego, but in smaller scenes like the open mic at The Treehouse in Columbus, Ohio or this little traveler scene in India there has been a lot more raw, humble talent.

Also on the impromptu bill tonight were Ian from York (the old one in England), who sang humorous, self-effacing songs about trying to meditate and looking at water bugs, and Crystal, whose smoky vocals reminded me of Natalie Merchant and whose simple lyrics were appealingly accessible but still poetic. They were both much better finger pickers than me.

I tried out a couple of new songs tonight: Chasing Butterflies, my newest love song for Christin, Why’d I Have to Tell Her No, about dealing with beggars and possible scammers, and a really new one I just started writing yesterday that I might call I Don’t Wanna Buy It. All these songs will probably be on my next album, and I will try to put up some YouTube videos once I get home around Christmas time.

Maybe It's Love

I love theoretical physics, and now I might have stumbled on a quantum theoretical answer to the problem of love. Well, either way I wrote a song about one.

I was inspired by an article I read on NPR which was ominously titled Scientists Take Quantum Steps Toward Teleportation. It got me so revved up that this song just kind of poured right out of me.

We're Quantumly Entangled

They say when 2 electrons
get very very near
they develop a connection
Or at least that's what I hear
And these 2 tiny little electrons
discover harmony
They match each other's vibrations
at the exact same frequency

Some say it's teleportation
others telepathy
or maybe telecommunication
But I've got another theory

Maybe it's love

Now if you separate these electrons
over distances so great
they won't break their connection
they won't forget their mate
They continue to feel each other
like they did when they were tight
And the speed of communication
is faster than light

Some say it's teleportation
others telepathy
or maybe telecommunication
But I've got another theory

Maybe it's love

You might might not like my theory
maybe it's too mundane
Love is a force of nature
too powerful to explain
But just because you know how
doesn't mean that you know why
And even the things that we can see
have the power to mystify

Some say it's god-given
others destiny
or maybe chemical signals
But it might be all these things

Maybe it's love

Maybe not...

I've been working on some new material and I had some grandiose plans for recording and releasing an EP before I leave Japan next month, but maybe not. The new stuff is good, but it's just not where it should be. And I've learned from experience that attempting to rush the recording and release of music that's not ready is a bad idea.

So I have a new and less audacious plan. When I was traveling in SE Asia I was very productive creativity-wise. I just went into it with some musical ideas and the overnight Thai buses did the rest. Afterward, I came out with most of the material on It'll Never Come Again. So I'm gonna try it again. I'll take my ideas on the road through China and India and record whatever comes out on the other side.

Also, I want to apologize to my loyal followers (if you actually exist somewhere out there). I'll try to keep up on my postings in the future and let you in on the process in a more intimate way.

See ya soon,
Kyle

Taiko

The first time I saw a Japanese taiko group perform last year, I was impressed by their precision and the incredible amount of noise they made. I thought it looked like it would be fun to bang the shit out of those drums, but I never thought I'd get the chance.

Today I had my first performance with the taiko group I've been practicing with for the last six months at the Tanabata festival in Maebashi. I played three songs: Jyoshyu is a pumped-up anthem that would be right at home at a college football game. Karakaze is named after the notoriously powerful zephyr that blows through Gunma every winter. And Tsurunomai is supposed to look like a dancing crane (which is apparently what Gunma looks like on a map).

Taiko is a totally different musical experience than what I'm used to. It's very rigid and precise. There's no room for improvisation. And there's choreography to learn. This is all very counter-intuitive for me, but it's probably helping me grow as a musician so I'm gonna stick with it at least until we leave Japan.

Attention all Bootleggers!

My live performances shall henceforth be preserved for posterity at the Live Music Archive at archive.org. My show at Kishin on April 24th is now up and ready for download. Here's a preview:

At this time I would also like to invite all of you secret bootleggers to come out of the closet and share all those recordings of my live shows that you've been hoarding in your crawl space. Or, for the rest of you, you can feel free to tape my live performances and share them in accordance with my official taping policy:

Fans are free and welcome to tape and upload any audio or video of any of Kyle's live performances to archive.org, youtube.com, or any other site for non-commercial use. Fans are also free to distribute Kyle's recorded music in accordance with their Creative Commons licenses.

Thanks and I'll see you at my next show.

The Life/Art Integration Project

We made some changes to the website. We added new download links, a brand new photo page with pictures from our travels, and our travel blog.

First, we separated the download page from the listen page. On the new download page there is a link where you can buy my music at CDBaby. There is also still a link to download it for free directly from me, or you can download it from The Internet Archive. At the archive you can find the higher quality .wav version of my album along with the .mp3s.

Also, there is a new photo page. We picked the best images from our travels throughout Asia and put them together in a slide show. You can also view our travel blog, Have You Had Your Rice Today? through the website now. We are doing all we can to merge Kyle Butler the musical image with Kyle Butler the actual human being, whereas before we thought for some reason that the two should be separated. (Christin calls this the Life/Art Integration Project.) Also, to that end, we are going to try to make some music videos with footage we get during the next leg of our travels. So as always, there will be more to see.

Novice monks in Chiang Mai.

Finally, we added more info to the listen page. While you listen you can peruse my album notes and bio. We're working on adding the lyrics, and we'll have them up as soon as we figure out a seamless way to integrate them into the site. (We haven't forgotten about you Khris. Also, the lyrics are attached to the .mp3s. Just right click the song in iTunes and look for the tab that says "lyrics." Or, just turn the volume up and listen real hard.)

Please Buy My Music

I changed my mind. Give me back all that free music. >:-[ whyIoughta...

Just kidding! ;-) (I promise that this will be the last time I use emoticons in this blog.)

I've put my music up for sale at CDBaby.com. You can buy the mp3 version of It'll Never Come Again for $9.99 or $.99 per song. It will also soon be available on iTunes, Amazon, etc. I would recommend CDBaby, though, because (selfishly) I get the biggest cut from them and (unselfishly) they are currently donating $1 from every album sold to the American Red Cross and to Mercy Corps, a Portland-based relief organization with a large presence in Haiti.

I'm still giving my music away for free at the website and at archive.org, but if you have the money and you want to support my work, then you can also purchase it. Either way, the best way that you can support me is to play my music for your friends and join the mailing list.

Also, I just want to say thanks for all the support you guys have given me so far.

love,
Kyle

What's up with the Downloads? Or, The Down Low on the Downloads

So apparently the download links have not been working properly (I thought you guys just didn't want my music). To rectify the situation, we've put the album up at archive.org. Point your browser to http://www.archive.org/details/ItllNeverComeAgain to download it from their server. You can download individual tracks if you want, or for the full album download the .zip file underneath the "whole item" heading. We're working on the website, and we'll have something new up and running soon.

Please Steal My Music

You may have noticed a new button at the bottom of every page that looks like this:

That means that anybody (including you) has permission to distribute, remix, or use the songs on It'll Never Come Again under a Creative Commons license. There are, however, a few catches: The tiny man (BY) says that you have to give me credit. The crossed-out money symbol (NC) says that my music is only available for non-commercial purposes. (If you wanna make money, then I wanna make money. We can work something out.) The little circley arrow (SA) says that if you rework, remake, or remix my music then you have to freely share your rework, remake, or remix the same way I have freely shared the originals.

Why would I leave my car door unlocked with my intellectual property sitting in plain view on the front seat and a big sign that says "Please steal me!" on the windshield? (What a metaphor!) I think that the internet is an amazing distribution outlet for creativity and people should be free to use it without fear of legal retribution. This way, the free flow of ideas will not be hindered and our lives will be richer for it.

Here's what the Creative Commons people think:

So if you want to make a techno remix of I've Been Stuck in New York City for Way Too Long and put it on your Myspace page or put Origami under a slow motion video of your uncle getting hit in the nuts by a tennis ball, or (better yet) share It'll Never Come Again with your friends via a P2P file sharing site, you have my blessing. I love watching other people get hit in the nuts with stuff.

A Dry Flattened Frog

Last night I played the open mic at The Treehouse in Columbus, Ohio. As I finished the first verse of Haven't Had Not, ("I knew right away that his plan was to eat it.") some people in the front started laughing.

It was kinda weird. I actually saw this guy in Cambodia. Even by Cambodian standards he looked impoverished and it wasn't funny at the time. My intention in this song was not to make fun of him.

On the other hand, I actually got a genuine reaction from my music. People were actually listening to the words. So that's pretty cool.

It'll Never Come Again

My new album is finished and ready for free download! Ahhhhhhhh...



I decided to call it It'll Never Come Again (from the lyrics in the song Early Test) because that's how I feel about this music. It all originated in moments of inspiration and if I had let those moments pass this music certainly wouldn't be here today. The eleven songs were written over a five year period, starting with More to See which I wrote back in college and ending with Yours on Earth and Haven't Had Not which both came about while I was recording the other songs.

Christin thinks you can trace the progression of my songwriting through this album, from Station (which she insists is a bunch of gobbledy-goop) to Yours on Earth (which apparently has a more concise message). I'd have to say that I agree with her.

Anyway, it's been a lot of work. It would have been finished a lot sooner if I hadn't been so lazy this summer, but I think the music sounds better for it. The entire thing was recorded on my MacBook through the internal microphone at my apartment and two of the schools I teach at in Japan. None of these environments were in any way sound proof so you can enjoy plenty of ambient noise. (Listen for the crickets on Early Test and the car driving by at the end of Beauty's Never Ugly.)

Now, I need to say thanks. First, thank you Christin for all of the work that you did on the website, promotion, research, inspiration, and kicking my ass into gear. I would not have finished all this without you. I also want to thank all the people who inspired this music and all the musicians I've played with past and present, especially Kevin and Shannon who were there when I wrote a bunch of this stuff. (Shannon also wrote one of the guitar parts in More to See.) Thank you Patrick and Brad for letting me play these songs at your bars (and thanks twice for the guitar Patrick). Thank you Eddie for helping me get the drums recorded. Thank you Mr. Horiguchi for letting me record at your schools and use your piano (even if you didn't know about it at the time). Thank you Grandma and Lauren for inspiring some of these songs. Thank you to all the rest of my family, friends, and fans for supporting me and telling me that I'm great (even when I suck). And finally thank YOU for reading this far.

As if I needed another reason to get naked...

I wanted to change one of the lines in Origami today, but as I was trying to re-record it I just couldn't get it to sound right.

The vocals were originally recorded in the shower, giving them this cool reverby effect that goes with the whole etherealness of the rest of the song. So I was back in the shower tonight and I kept singing new line over and over again, but there was never any reverb when I played it back. The whole dreamy feel was gone and I couldn't figure out why.

Then, it hit me. I recorded the original vocals back in August, which means that it was balls-ass hot, which means that I was butt-ass naked. I needed to get naked again. My thick December pajamas were dampening the reverb and soaking up all the ethereal.

So I braved the December cold (there's no central heating in our apartment), dropped trow, and got back in that shower. I'm happy to say that it worked.

So let that be a lesson to you: If things aren't going your way, get naked.


This is a quick preview of Origami. The line I recorded tonight was "Endless fields of ripe blueberries."

Electric Guitar

I was going to do this whole album on my acoustic guitar, but then I met someone with an electric. At the same time, some of the parts (especially the lead guitar parts) weren't sounding right. So I said screw it and borrowed the electric for a few days. I'm glad I did.

Tonight I added a slide guitar to "Beauty's Never Ugly" and I think it sounds pretty good. I'm not very good at the slide, so the part I played was pretty basic but it kind of makes it sound like a brand new song to me.

This is the first time in a while that I've been excited about this song. It's been nothing but trouble for me to record and nothing has ever sounded right. It actually took me about 2 hours of trial and error guitar soloing before I figured out that it would sound better with the slide.

I only have the electric for 2 more days, so I'm going to be up late in the GLC piano room both nights adding guitar solos and backwards weirdness to the album. It's nice to be playing an electric guitar again. (Thanks Patrick.)

My Japanese Debut (but for real this time)

I played my first show last night at Freestyle Bar in Maebashi. I was pretty nervous about the new material (and the old stuff that I'd never played on stage), but everybody (a few friends and a random group of Japanese businessmen/women) was into it.

Playing alone is not like playing in a band. The noise that the band creates kind of envelops you like a fog. It wraps around you like a warm blanket. It's a suit of armor that makes you feel invincible. I could keep going with the lame metaphors, but I think you get it. You're putting yourself out there either way, but when it's just you up there there's nowhere to hide.

I played a new song that I hadn't put online anywhere yet. It's called "Yours on Earth." Here it is:

The show went well. I can't wait to play again.

This was the set list:

I Know
Beauty's Never Ugly
No More War Songs>Your Pussy's Glued to a Building on Fire
Yours on Earth
I've been Stuck in NYC for Way Too Long
More to See
Turn it On (sing-along version)

I sang in church (but it's not like that)

I taught my first music class today in a small church near the English school I work at. They wanted to learn a song in English, so I chose "Love Me Do" by the Beatles because it's so simple. At my boss' request I also did "Amazing Grace".

It felt a little weird to be sitting in church singing a song praising God, but I agreed because it is a beautiful song. That's the great thing about atheism, you don't have any faith to violate.

The class went really well. I tried to focus on teaching them the meaning of the songs while also touching on the pronunciation of some of the trickier words. Although, since "Amazing Grace" was written in like 1779 it is filled with tricky words like toils, wretch, thus far, and 'twas.

It did feel cool to have a whole chorus singing along with me, though.

My Japanese Debut

Last night we went to see a Jazz trio at this tiny place in Saitama prefecture called Club Kuest (like quest, but with a k). The band played some classic Jazz standards. The singer had a really cool voice and her English pronunciation was so good that it was actually a little jarring when she spoke to the audience in Japanese between numbers.

The highlight for me, though, was the cellist. He was frickin' sweet. It was the first time I ever heard the 12 bar blues played on a cello.

After their first set they started jamming with the owner of the bar and some audience members. Just as they were getting warmed up, a friend of mine ushered me up on the stage and asked me to play a song. It was pretty rough.

The band seemed to insist on playing with me, so I decided to play "I Know" because it's a simple song. I showed them the chords and seemed to follow me, so we started the song, but I was playing an acoustic that wasn't plugged in and they didn't know the chords so it just kind of stuck to G-D the whole time. It basically sounded like shit and wasn't that fun, but hey, at least I got a chance to perform one of my songs in a Japanese Jazz club.

Cello? You gotta bass.

Later I picked up an electric guitar and attempted to initiate a freestyle jam, but that kind of went nowhere. The other guys just seemed confused and didn't know what to play so I just kind of cranked up the volume and whaled away. I don't think it went over very well.

At the end I got on the drums and finally found my niche. It was the first time everybody seemed to appreciate the fact that I had a slightly different approach to playing. At least things ended well.

the oldies

I've been pretty productive lately. I've gotten 3 songs most of the way recorded in the last week: More to See, Station, and Origami. These are the three oldest songs I'm putting on the album. I'm not all that prolific as a writer, and some of these oldies are really good so I need to get them recorded and out there so I can feel some closure and move on with my new ideas.

More to See is one of the first songs I ever wrote. It was one of those things that just suddenly pours out of you all at once as if it was already fully formed. I'm still not really sure if I actually wrote this song or if I just transcribed it. But it's one of my favorites.

I wrote Station around the time I finished college. It's a slow ode to disillusionment, which was my specialty at the time. I played it with Shannon and Kevin during the post-Stragglers days, but it fell by the wayside when we became Ålushus.

Origami is from the Brooklyn era. I started playing this thing that had a really complex fingering, and then I realized that it would be easier if I just re-tuned my guitar to DADABE. It has a very mystic feel, much different from the rest of the stuff on the album. On both this one and Station I have recorded two rhythm guitar parts and panned one all the way to the right and the other to the left.

After I add some lead guitar parts and backwards magic these songs will probably be finished. It all makes me nostalgic for the confining simplicity of a four-track tape recorder.

couple a newbs

I worked on a couple of new songs today.

One of them was inspired by a friend. We were talking about my music and she said she wanted to hear something that would make her want to get up and go out and do something. Something inspiring. I realized that none of my songs were like that, so I decided to take up the challenge. We'll see whether or not I'm successful.

The other one is kind of about having and not having. I'm writing it like the NYC song, using real experiences that I've had to kind of sketch out a complex issue. I had to get rid of some stuff 'cause it was too damn preachy (the biggest weakness in my songwriting). I've got a few stories laid out and I'm waiting for inspiration to provide the rest, but she's got her own schedule.

Recording Update #1

So I started recording "Beauty's Never Ugly" because I thought it would be pretty easy. That was three weeks ago. For some reason I just can't get anything on that track to sound right. The vocals aren't in time with the guitar, the background vocals are out of tune, and laying down a lead guitar track is proving extremely difficult with my set up.

So I put it on the back burner and started recording "More to See". It's one of the first songs I ever wrote and I've recorded it before, so it's going pretty well. It's also the only collaborative effort that will go on this album. Some of the guitar parts were written by Shannon back in the pre-Straggler days.

I first recorded "More to See" in a hot little walk-in closet in North Carolina, now I'm re-recording it in a sweaty little laundry room in Japan. Listen for me playing the washing machine during the chorus.