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You're Treading On Me

My friend Jarl wrote and recorded a song for a Swedish punk rock contest. He sent me an email seeing if I would like to write some lyrics and record some vocals for the song. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to work on the song until last Sunday morning…the date when the songs were due! I wrote and recorded this in about an hour and a half. It’s not the cleverest lyric, the most sublime verse, the solo isn’t great and it’s not even very tuneful, but I’m happy with it for 90 minutes of work.…

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Let's Get Drunk!

Man, I can’t believe I never posted this tune. Here goes! There are two parts to my brain. The creative part just keeps pumping out ideas and I do my best never to get in it’s way. Then there’s the second part of my brain, the editor. He likes to ruminate, to filter, to contextualize. He’s the one that hammers and polishes those raw ideas into something. He’s just as important to the process.…

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Another item crossed off the life goals list

I’ve written about my punk band 45 Adapters before, but I’ve completely forgotten to mention the fact that our debut EP has been released!

You can pick up a copy at Interpunk, Longshot Music or Contra Records. It feels very rewarding scratching another item off of my life goals list. My high school band BOTB never completed our planned release. We did appearing on a compilation and a split 7” with The Templars, but nothing under our own name.

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Paper Times 2

Hey, pickabar.com readers! Ok, reader. 😉 I wrote this song about two years ago. It was a single verse long and to be charitable, I was just starting to learn how to record. I had the song stuck in my head and finally decided to to have another crack at it last week. I’m definitely still a beginner in the world of recording, but I think this new version is light years ahead of my earlier effort.…

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Nothing To Prove

The thing about bands is that they are usually associated with a genre, which is a lot like a cage for creativity. I just write the songs that come to me and leave out any sort of classification or pre-determined rules for what type of songs I’ll write. Most of the songs fall under the incredibly wide umbrella “Punk Rock”, but I never let that label confine my imagination.…

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Directionless

I’m feeling quite directionless at the moment. It’s probably not healthy that I spend every waking minute watching 30 Rock re-runs or surfing the tubes of the interwebs…so, I decided to make some depressing background music. Enjoy. If you know anyone who is making a low budget short or something, please send them a link.  [Directionless][1]   [][2] [[Download MP3][1]] [1]: https://www.pickabar.com/music/pickabar - directionless.mp3 [2]: /uploads/2009/10/delete.jpg…

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Brand New Good Old Days

I wrote this song a long time ago. Then I wrote Bridge Store and Craig pointed out that they both used the same chord progression. So, on Saturday I wrote a new chord progression for BNGOD (I love acronyms). Then I recorded it. Now you can listen to it. Soon 45AD will play it.  Brand New Good Old Days  Remember when we sang those songs, arching down the street about 20 strong.…

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Bent And Broken

Wow, this is a tune I wrote back in February of last year, but somehow forgot to blog. 45AD is going to be playing the song, so I decided to work on remixing it. I was tempted to re-record the pitchy vocals, but this is a snapshot of what happened on the day I wrote the song. Everyone talks about compromise, but most of the time they are talking about other people compromising.…

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We Can Win!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a new Pickabar tune, hasn’t it? I’ve been busy working on 45 Adapters recordings and haven’t had much time to dedicate to writing. Believe it or not, I actually went through a period of about eight days without even playing guitar. You know, the symbolism of a bundle of rods tied together has been ruined by it’s association with fascism, but it still represents an essential truth about life.…

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