Mirrors & Microphones/Bottomless

How do I even begin to end this? We wanted to end on a slightly epic note, hence the two part tune. A song that asks, what if you saw yourself reflected and didn't cringe? What if you allowed yourself to give your all without the fear of losing it? I think Scot and I came to this project needing to get slightly different things out of it. Scot needed an outlet to plug his RIDICULOUS talent into, a reason to keep creating. I needed to get my big white chicken feathers plucked, to leave the sidelines. We've both found ourselves to be far more capacious than we ever could have imagined. Doors are open. Lights are on. My, what a big room to have never used. We're through with wasting. All 52 songs showcased on this blog serve as a bookmark, a highlighted section of a year well spent.

The End. (Unless you count next week's song, which will be a cover of a song we wish we'd written. Stay tuned, forever.)



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They're Watching Us (WORKOUT)

On May 7th, we posted the song "They're Watching Us (DANCE)" to the Week Hits blog. It was a silly little number about how aliens are captivated by the dance stylings of Earth dwellers. I guess I hadn't said all I had to say on that topic because when I heard the music to this week's song I was catapulted back to May, back to the aliens, only this time it seemed right that ghosts should take part in the voyeurism as well. I had to wear my Luv Club hat while penning this nonsense and much to the chagrin of ghosts and aliens everywhere, I fully intend to put this song on my ultimate gymnasium playlist. It should fit nicely somewhere between "Poker Face" and "Love In An Elevator" don'tcha think?  This song has the potential to become a gym anthem with it's battle cry for "Gym Memberships, Not Mother Ships!".  My muscles are confused already.  

The end is near, such an alien/ghost thing to say, but really, we've only got one song to go before we officially pass the song-a-week torch off to Kanye! 



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Some pictures from the recording of this week's song:

I was told this week's song would be "simple", but just look at all those lyrics!  Never trust Scot.

the sights of sound!

A cat in the rafters.

Dust

Kids, read the books they make you read in school. Even if you think it's boring or not your cup of tea, read on. Scot suggested that this week's song should be written about a serial killer. I liked the idea, and initially had every intention of doing just that. Upon hearing the music I decided to take a less literal approach to the notion of "killer". Something about the music conjured imagery from the novel The Grapes of Wrath. I decided not to cast a human as the killer, but rather something much more allusive like The Great Depression, despair, cruelty, neglect, human suffering and hardship. Something that could sweep or creep in and destroy anything in it's path. Having said this, having written this song, I can honestly say that I HATED being forced to read The Grapes of Wrath, but am so glad I did. You should know that every stitch of information you take into your mind shapes it in ways you won't know or understand until that moment when you just do.

Only two songs remain unwritten! I find myself having to keep pen and paper handy because the final song has been playing peekaboo with me.



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But, Mother

I've learned something about country music.  A good country song writes itself. When composing one, your only job is to sit back and let it come out. A heavy hand will always fail.  You've got to think of yourself as one of those women who doesn't even know she's pregnant until the baby comes screaming out of her. When it's all done, you'll marvel at how simple yet perfect it is, and that's country folks.

The title of this week's song might confuse some, but we just plain like it. This song actually goes out to a very special listener with the hopes that his Mother will sing it to him whilst wiping away his tears. We also have a sneaking suspicion that our own Mothers will be fans of this one.

And now, for the first time in Week Hits history, we bring you photos from the recording session. Everything feels so final, only three songs to go!



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"Are you even singing notes Ann?"

Sometimes I blame the mic for my vocal shortcomings

Déjà vu

I don't know if it was the extreme heat coupled with my car's lack of AC, but I experienced déjà vu twice this past week. Both occurrances revolved around the band Aerosmith. I decided that déjà vu is totally something that Steven Tyler would sing a song about. His lyrics are filled with talk of devil women, dice rolls and AWESOMENESS. Now that this week's song is done, we're going to pop The Making of Pump into the DVD player to wrap up our Aerosmith infused week.

Only four songs remain! I think we're feeling kinda country....



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Grampy's Got Some Wizdum 4U

Did you know that the elderly are Luv Club's target audience? We ache and long for their wisdom. This song marks a turning point in Luv Club's music. It's hard for me to even compose this post through all of the tears and heartache, but I must inform you all that one of our founding members, Doctor Gramp Monologue Man, has given up the music game and moved south. As is the problem with any band of substantial size, it can be hard to keep everyone together in the same place. We know that due to subject matter, it has always been of the utmost importance that the identities of Luv Club members be kept a secret. This makes it hard for our listeners to wrap their heads around just who or what Luv Club is, but I can tell you this much, Luv Club is the dream that never dies, the obsession of the moment, the friend group that causes a sensation, the elephant in the room, the kids who won't shut up, that hot piece of tail that will eventually break your heart and the reason pop music was invented. Soon, however, there won't be enough members of Luv Club left and Lincoln's best kept secret will fade into the past, but not before we lay as many explicitly hot jams on you as time and The ProDOUCHer will allow.



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Record This

With only six songs to go, we're feeling a bit reflective. I'm not exactly sure how I'll feel when Week Hit's has officially ended, but I do know that this past year will always be a highly memorable one. Children are often taught to remember things by setting them to music. Most of us still recite our ABC's to the same tune that was used to help us learn them. And what about songs and albums you grew up listening to? Those will always remind you of a time and a place. I like that I can go back and listen to any of the forty-six songs we've recorded thus far and be instantly transported back to the week it was recorded. Gives a nice double meaning to the word "record", doesn't it?



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Ghost Writer

There was a time in my life when I believed myself to be haunted by the authorly spirit of Willa Cather. It was crazy. Billboards bearing her face were erected outside my bedroom window. My parents went on an impromptu trip and wound up in Red Cloud at her childhood home. Without the knowledge that they were doing Willa's bidding, they brought me home souvenir Cather bookmarks. Lately, Scot and I have been doing some ghost hunting with the members of Luv Club through which I feel we've pretty much proven the existence of ghosts. The other morning I was sitting at my computer, drinking coffee alone in my home, when I heard what could only be described as the sound of someone walking around upstairs. Ghosts, they are among us and just as real as this week's song. BELIEVE!

We would also like to dedicate this song to our dear friend Dr. Schueth, a Cather scholar and an adamant non-believer in ghosts who will soon be leaving us to do bigger and better things in the state of Texas. We blot our tears with the knowledge that he will always be here with us in spirit.



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We're Not Fighting

This song was almost titled "Fuck You & Fuck This Song", but then we thought of the children (and our mothers...) You know how sometimes in a relationship you can be fighting without realizing that you're doing it? And then eventually you start to argue about how you're not the one who's arguing? It's fun, right? Well maybe not, but you can set most anything to music and make it more enjoyable. So here's to putting down your dukes and picking up a guitar and a pen.



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Health Vampire

That's right, it's LUV CLUB. And a very special edition of Luv Club at that. We had some long distance Luvers from our Denver branch in town for the holiday weekend and took full advantage of that. You might find yourself having many questions about Luv Club, but you really only need to know one thing: we got issues. We're prone to obsessive fits that tend to manifest themselves in either songs of worship or disdain. "Health Vampire" is most definitely a song of worship. Gawd bless the internet, Susan Powter and Youtube.

ALSO! With this song, the final countdown begins. Only nine songs to go!



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Loco Motives

I can't believe this week's song is only three minutes long. It's small but mighty. Musically, it's two separate song ideas that got strung together. The song linking influenced the lyrical train theme that runs throughout. Plus, it just had to be about something motorized, this shit revs.

Still liking the new studio, but discovered some horrifyingly large spiders down there tonight. Do spiders have ears? I was hoping the foundation shaking noise we make would kill or deter any unwanted pests. Those evil arachnids probably thrive on sonic pulses. On the bright side, their existence could possibly make for a stellar recording of a blood curdling scream should the need arise in a future song. A spider might also make for a good drummer, what with all those legs and such.



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Battered Heart

This week's song is about a baker who whips battered hearts back into shape. His confections are certainly to be construed as affections. He knows that love makes the world taste good. Actually, he's the very baker who Tori Amos sings about in her song "Baker Baker". Look him up, he's awfully sweet.

So that's what the song is about and all, but you should know that this is the first song recorded in our new basement studio. Scot got to bang on real drums! I never thought I'd see the day when our too-cool-to-care cat hid under the bed, but apparently all the sonic desensitization training we've put him through for the past nine months was not enough to prepare him for the shocking loudness of live drums (he thinks this week's song should be called "Battered Hearing"). Living in a house means that we no longer share common walls with other humans, and dammit, we intend to live like it!



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Diet Riot

This week's song is the newest Luv Club jam. Did you know that the members of Luv Club are ghost hunting body builders? They recently took a break from their weekend ghost hunting to lay down a track so hot it will burn/torch the calories right out of your body. Luv Club knows that you can work out all day every day, but if you aren't listening to the right kind of music while you do it you'll never be truly fit (see any and all workout montages from the Rocky movies for proof). Luv Club wants their listeners to be fit. They want you to make your workouts epic, but also understand that some of their listeners are on a budget that excludes gym memberships and would like to offer some cheap alternative workout tips. If you don't have a state of the art Russian gym to work out in, try pulling horses out of snow drifts to build total body strength. Or you could run briskly through bad parts of town to build up your cardio. Fill some sacks with heavy books and try walking about to build back strength. How about finding a creepy man who only speaks through one side of his mouth to bark workout commands at you when your will power is fading? Or, just wait for Luv Club's full length album to come out. People are going to be dropping pounds like crazy. Brace yourself for some heart pounding, muscle confusing awesomeness! Hit it.



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I'm A House

This week's song was very much ripped directly from our real lives. I don't always like to write autobiographical songs (seems a bit too Dear Diary), but we are moving next week, and as I was doing some packing and cleaning it occurred to me that both Scot and I have moved a lot in our lives. As a child, moving upset me. I always felt like I was being forced to leave things and places behind that were irreplaceable. I think I may have been slightly overexposed to The Wizard of Oz. As an adult I no longer feel this way, no longer feel the need to cling so tightly to places or things. While thinking these thoughts, I was sweeping the floor in the living room and still finding flecks of glitter from the Christmas tree that stood in the corner of that room six months earlier. Something about that seemed prosaic to me, it seemed to speak in favor of my thought that nothing is ever really left behind when we move on. I stopped sweeping to jot down a few lines about it. I let these written lines sit for a few days, not knowing what, if anything, I wanted to do with them. On Tuesday morning I decided to sit down and see if I could come up with something for this week's song. I pulled up my word processor and found the scraps I had jotted down and discovered that below the lines about the tree appeared the line "turning life into a song". I didn't remember writing that, but felt it was the thought that would make the ideas I'd piled up while sweeping become cohesive and tidy. So here it is, a sparkly clean song about home sweet home.


We hope to employ the help of the fabulous Luv Club to complete next week's song!



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Connected In Connecticut

This song should probably come with a warning label. IT WILL GET STUCK IN YOUR HEAD. That being said, we're killing two birds with one song here. My Mother is one of eleven kids. She has six sisters and the sisters love nothing more than to get together and perform songs at family functions. One of my cousins is getting married this coming Fall in Connecticut and we're having a shower for her at the end of June. The sisters usually do some pretty awesome Weird Al style song parodies for these events, but decided that since Scot and I were writing a song a week anyway, we might as well write one for them. Daunting! This little song had a lot of jobs to perform. It had to be something they would have a blast singing and performing. I wanted it to be cute and rompy while doing the job of telling the love story of my cousin Corey and her fiance Brian. It also had to work as one of our weekly songs and hopefully hold appeal for listeners outside of my family. I think our version of the song is pretty sweet, but cannot wait to hear (and hopefully videotape!) the sister's performance of it.



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The Better To Leave You With

There was a full moon last night. I happened to catch just a fleeting glimpse of it from where I was sitting on the couch before it rose high into the sky and out of my sight. But maybe, and apparently that was all it took for the full moon and all of it's associated imagery to make an impression on my inner, often unaware lyricist. Or maybe it was the youtube video about teen wolf packs I watched a few days ago. It was probably a combination of these things and then the very sound of the music that Scot put together that dictated the subject matter of this week's song. I love the music of this song, it's very evocative. Much like a wolf, dressed in either sheep's or Grandmother's clothing, it lures you in.



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Bad Move

Did we tell you we're moving? Well, we are. In the middle of June, which should make song writing and recording interesting for a time. Hopefully we'll get a week ahead on the songs before the move. While we'll be somewhat sad to leave our apartment, the birthplace of Week Hits, we're moving to a house which means we'll have a full basement to record and rehearse in without having to worry about the noise as much. We feel this will be a good move for us. So why is the title of this week's song "Bad Move" then? Scot went ahead and wrote yet ANOTHER rock song this week and I, feeling rather tapped out on rock lyrics, decided to write about what's been on my mind lately. Moving. But moving doesn't typically rock, so I morphed it into a song about a dude who has to kick out his trampy girlfriend. She made a bad move.



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Who Am I?

Scot and I have both had the great pleasure to work in customer service jobs. The most annoying thing about customer service jobs? THE CUSTOMERS. Seriously. There are plenty of nice, normal people in the world, but there are also plenty of mean, abnormal ones. Following in a close second on the annoyance scale are corporate policies that are supposedly put in place to make the whole process run like a well oiled machine, but they often fail to take into account the stick wielding masses heading straight for the spokes of said corporate machine. When Week Hit's wraps up we're toying with the idea of collaborating on a consumer etiquette guide called "The Customer Is Usually Wrong".


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They're Watching Us (DANCE)

The B-52's had a smash hit with the song "Love Shack" during my formative years. I've also watched a lot of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, The X-Files and pretty much every dance flick known to man (OK, I also have a TOP SECRET odd love for Gwen Stefani songs). All of this, when mixed together, goes a long way toward explaining why this week's song is the way it is. Plus, don't you ever feel like aliens are watching us and going "WTF"? I feel like they are probably captivated by The Dance. It's maybe the most foreign of all universally human activities to them.



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Song of Sam

This week's song is a jam. Or rather, it's about jam. The story of the song is that a guy named Sam meets a gal named Sam and she makes jam. He thinks she's sweet and her jam's even sweeter. Just a couple of Sam's that make and eat jam. Why not?

On a side note, we've reached the point in the blog project where we now have less than twenty songs left to write and record. For some reason this seems like such a small number! It's got me thinking about the kinds of songs we have yet to record. Like this morning on my drive to work I heard "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits and decided we should aim for an intro and sound that's as epically cool as that song (minus the homophobia, of course). We'd also like to do a highly percussive Phil Collins meets Janet Jackson number. And we did always say we were going to have a role reversal week where Scot writes the lyrics and I do the music....so maybe there will be an a cappella song in the collection. Would that be cheating?



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Peck, Finch, Mockingbird

Gregory Peck played Atticus Finch in the film version of To Kill A Mockingbird. That factual statement is like a verbal nesting doll. After hearing the lovely music that Scot composed for this week's song, I decided that it should be about the destruction of and perhaps too, the fight to preserve innocence. I liked the idea of juxtaposing the imagery of hollow boned birds and nesting dolls. Nesting dolls are hollow until you get down to the smallest, densest doll. Perhaps this is symbolism? Inner child, anyone? And it is their hollow bones that allows birds to whistle over our heads. They are free to fly because of their lightness. Birds also start out encased in eggs. Every time a bird hatches from it's egg it's like the sky is reborn. This song is about trying to cling to the core of who we are before we are forced to encase ourselves and amass layers of protective self.



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Naybors

We live next door to some people who had an unsuccessful yard sale. Everything they failed to sell has remained on their lawn. It's like an abandoned never ending yard sale over there. I realize that we are maybe not everyone's favorite neighbors due to the sometimes rather loud noises associated with recording a song a week in our apartment, but seeing a graveyard of unsold, unwanted CRAP every time we look out our dining room windows makes these people the worst. As I sit typing this I have a fantastic view of a green and blue metal picnic table, an aluminum workbench, two rusty grills and a black, leaf covered love seat. Oh, and two weeks ago, I got to watch as one of the children who lives in this unfortunate household relieved himself outside this same window and then threw one of his little shoes on our doorstep. So this song is just about how we don't particularly appreciate the way these people are living. Sometimes it's hard for me to come up with lyrical content for these Hessian songs Scot composes. I basically closed my eyes and thought of who was annoying me the most at present and made the song about them. Yikes.



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Walk Around The Block

Damn, that was a hard winter. I know we're all glad to see it go. One good thing about being buried under snow for months on end is that you have plenty of time to stay inside and write songs. Well, we did that and I knew there would be some cabin fever striking us pretty hard come April. Don't worry, we can take it. Even though we spent our entire week riding bikes and walking around the block, we are fully committed to seeing this project through. Hopefully we won't wait until Friday to start the songs all Summer long...not my favorite way to make the hits happen. Break out the lime flavored beers and de-hibernate with this springy new song.



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mirror mirror

We're feeling reflective, and since no one submitted an answer to last week's story problem, we decided to write this song about ALL OF YOU! That's what you get. This week's song reminded me of so much, musically. It kicked off with what I thought of as a White Stripes' sound and then the bridge reminded me of a Blondie song that Scot, who wrote the music, isn't even familiar with. Scot thought parts were reminiscent of Steppenwolf and The Strokes. This got me to thinking about how really, everything has been done before. It's all so pasticheous. Every attempt at originality is a failure. Ideas are recyclable, echo-logical. Everything repeats. Like this blog, this whole project, it's not really all that original. We could easily be accused of seeing Julie & Julia a few too many times. Humans are a rather futile race when you think about it, but we're in this together. That's consoling, right? We think so. Instead of concentrating on and striving for such sever originality, which only causes us to drift further away from our own humanity, why not form a powerful superhuman Pangaea? After all, we are the world...see, again, none of this is original thought folks. Doesn't make it any less true.



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Story Problem

If two people start making music at the rate of one song a week for a year, how many songs will they have written in one year's time? That's an example of a story problem. And we'll write a song about the first person to comment with the correct answer. This week's song uses mathematical terminology to solve the problem of a love triangle. Singing calculators and cheerleaders! Hooray, a practical use for math-y stuff.



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Extreme Man

Spring has sprung! The songs are certainly in full bloom around here. We actually had two songs written this week to choose from. We opted to record "Extreme Man" because of the more simplistic musical aesthetic of the song. This will allow us to do two very important things: 1) Spend more time making next week's song as lush and fabulous as it wants to be and 2) GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY NOW!




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Full Drawn

While the title of this week's song is "Full Drawn", it marks the halfway point of our little blog project here. It seems like if a band or artist is around long enough they always end up with at least one Spanish flavored song. And we figured that since we are 26 songs into our 52 song journey it was time for us to do one. Consider this our "La Isla Bonita", or just a tequila fueled duet.



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Don't Wig Out

This week's song is the long awaited, much talked about new Luv Club jam! It's a bit like Ladytron meets Lady Beware. The song is sung from the point of view of an eight-fingered stalker who obsesses over long-haired women because of their ability to grow and regrow hair while he is stuck with two bald spots where his missing fingers once were. Now dance!



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Chicken Egg

When people hear that we're writing a song a week for a year they often want to know just how we do it. What inspires us? Do we come up with the music or the lyrics first? We really don't have too many solid answers to give folks. Some weeks the songs are a struggle, other times they come together easily. There have been some weeks where I've written the lyrics and handed them to Scot to build a song around. Usually though, I wait for the music to be done and get my lyrical inspiration from the sound and vibe of it. This week was a magical anomaly where the lyrics and a melody just started flying out of me in a wonderfully unstoppable way. I was even able to overcome my technical difficulties and record a scratch track of the song into Scot's itouch ALL BY MYSELF! So you see, it really doesn't matter which comes first, the chicken or the egg, we love this song and hope you will too.



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Pie In The Sky

This week's song is seasonal...a Lenten song loud enough to resurrect the dead. Scot likes to scream and I'm finding that our heavy songs are my favorites at the gym. By now, I'm sure you've all seen the mark of the smudge-faced parishioners trying to give up a few of their favorite vices. You might even suspect that the early completion of this week's song means that we gave up procrastination, but really we just want to be able to go out on a Friday night. It's been awhile. We'll probably be back to barely making deadline next week.



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Adam's Rib

Nothing goes right to a boy's head like the kindly worship of his mother. Usually does more harm than good though, right ladies? This song explores the ego reconstruction that a man has to undergo if he's ever going to be worth a darn and truly make his mother proud.



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Chalk Met Ink

This is our most delicate song to date. Almost feels like it could break apart at any moment, much like an egg shell or brittle piece of chalk. "Chalk Met Ink" tells the tale of childhood insecurities that later manifested themselves in an Easter egg hunt for love which eventually culminates in a Pentecost of sorts, enabling the songstress to finally hear and speak the language of love. Listen to this song after Vespers.



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Heartland

This song is my understanding of how a man feels when he really loves his woman. It's also a lot like that Arby's commercial from the 90's where Ray Charles keeps blathering about "horsey sauce", only his pronouncement is something more like "hawsey sauuuwce". Too bad this commercial predates youtube. ANYway, this song's like jazzed up roast beef.



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Rain In

We had a roof leak this week and the water made it's way into the song. Something like water damage can make you feel terribly helpless, all you can do is put down buckets to catch the water (and make dozens of phone calls to your landlord). At some point you just have to move all your valuables to higher ground and give up. The water made a mess, disrupted our week, but also inspired the lyrical content of this week's song. Songs are the perfect refuge from high waters, granted they have a sturdy bridge. Hope this week's hit floats your boat.



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If you ever get a sex change, let me know

No, this is not a Luv Club song. The inspiration for the lyrics came to me while I was eavesdropping at work. What I actually heard and what the song turned into are two completely different things, but wouldn't it be awesome if two dudes were friends and decided they wanted to be a couple but didn't want to be a gay couple? Obviously the solution to their dilemma would be for one of them to get a sex change. I'm sure Tyra has covered this topic, but it was a new idea to me. And how great was it that I made my boyfriend play the role of sex change coercer in this gender dysmorphic couple? I'm convinced. Also, anytime you can work the word "penis" into a chorus, you know you've got a hit on your hands.



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The Ballad of Randy LeBybee

We're cutting it pretty close this week. We don't usually fancy ourselves to be balladeers, but thought we'd try our hand anyway. Even threw in some harmonica. This here ballad is about a love crazed boy named Randy. Randy just loves his gal Candy and is proof that, in the wrong hands, love can be a weapon of mass destruction. Randy is that special brand of stupid, the kind whose stupidity somehow exonerates him. Don't go feeling too sorry for Randy though, he went shopping for women's underwear and somehow got himself immortalized in a song.



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Dark Is The Fright

Happy New Year to all our readers, listeners and downloaders! While we didn't get as ahead on the hits as we would have liked to over the holidays, we're quite pleased with how the first hit of the new year has turned out. It's a song befitting the usual fresh start outlook that most people seem to take this time of year. We wish you mobility in the new year and thereby invite you to join us in trying some new things in an effort to overcome those fears that keep you locked in place. This year Ann will be attempting to overcome her fear of microphones by singing more. And Scot, well, he's going to try eating a vegetable. And if that doesn't kill him, he'll eat some more.



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