Groundscore

Groundscore: Zach's New Song

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

Groundscore is sad.

Why sad? Because this is the final Groundscore song I have to share with you!! Also, because this is a sad song.

See, back in 1999, there were sad teenagers across America who were starting to spend a lot of time gelling and brushing their hair. They didn't completely connect with the goth mentality, nor did they entirely reject the peppy energy of punk. No, they were proud pioneers were a new breed... a blend of hard rock and emotion... they were the forefathers of emotional rock! Which later became known as emo.

Anyway, point is that we did our own proto-emo thing with Zach's New Song. Zach was always a hopeless romantic and it was only a matter of time before he busted out the acoustic guitar and tempted the waterworks with an original tune.

On this song, Conrad plays drums, I play bass and keyboard, and Zach plays guitar and sings.

If we had to do this one over again, I would make the vocals louder in the mix. Sometimes they get a bit swallowed up by the instruments.

So... that's it for Groundscore! Sometime in the near future, I'll post all of these songs as one .ZIP for you to download. Thx for listening and taking this trip down memory lane with me. And if you're aching for new music, then you'll be glad to know that I'll be back soon with some very special Nik Furious news.

Groundscore: Upstairs

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Groundscore is "sitting on the couch in your basement"...

The basement reference in this song is very literal. Conrad's basement was the home of Groundscore. It was our practice space. It was our hang out space. And it's where we recorded this song.

We regarded this song as our "single" -- if we ever had the chance to put one out, that is. We thought it was the most well-rounded and attractive song in our set. In retrospect, I'm not sure that it's any better or worse than our other tracks... just a bit more of the times (late 90s pop punk before the emo explosion).

This song is notable for being our one truly collaborative composition. Typically, we worked in a more individual fashion, bringing pre-written songs to the table and tweaking them for the band. Upstairs, however, was written collaboratively -- appropriately enough -- upstairs in Conrad's bedroom (our secondary hang out spot).

On this recording, Conrad plays drums, Zach plays guitar and sings the choruses, and I play bass and sing the verses and bridge.

Honestly, my vocals kinda suck on this. Zach should have sung the whole song. I'm not tone-deaf, but I have an extremely difficult time making my voice replicate the notes I hear. I spent a lot of my youth in musical theater and experienced all kinds of vocal training, and it's never made much of a difference!

As for the lyrics themselves, I'm still quite fond of them. I think they have a nice degree of ambiguity, along with enough recognizable phrasing to make them both familiar and strange at the same time, leaving lots of room for personal interpretation.

Next up is the final Groundscore recording, our most emotional outing... a track titled "Zach's New Song."

Groundscore: Prom Mom

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

Groundscore is in the driveway, ready to take some pictures because...

...we're going to the prom with your mom! Actually, driveways are really relevant to this song because that's where I came up with the concept and most of the lyrics. It all came together when the Baja Limo Sacramento California service rolled up and picked us all up. That moment came to me as an instant yet so much had played out in my mind.

We used to hang out in Conrad's driveway a lot. Which is odd considering that the place where we lived was cold for eight months out of the year and Conrad's driveway was also a steep hill.

But back to the song! It was originally titled "I Went To The Prom With Your Mom" and later shortened to "Prom Mom."

On this Groundscore version, Conrad plays drums, Zach plays guitar and sings back up, I'm on bass and lead vocals, and I also play the fuzzy guitar solo.

I love playing Prom Mom and I think it's a lot of fun. In fact, I've been playing and recording it more consistently than any other song I've ever written. Here's a solo acoustic version (also NSFW) from a few years ago.

EDIT: And I almost forgot... today is Conrad's birthday! Happy bday, Con!!!

Next up is Groundscore's signature song (and the only one we all wrote together)... a little ditty called "Upstairs."