Nur Ein is on!

If you're not in the know about Nur Ein, here's the scoop. Each year since 2006, Niveous hosts an intense elimination challenge called Nur Ein (German for "Only One"). 25 entrants begin the competition, and through a series seven elimination rounds, only one will be left standing. The past winners have been Glenn Case, Puce, and The Worldly Self Assurance (couldn't find websites for the latter two, sorry).

The qualifying round, Round Zero, which will determine the 25 contestants, has just ended. Its title was "Sleep Tight," with the stipulation that the song must include (human) whistling. For my entry, I went with something a bit different from what I've been doing lately. You can hear it here. I'll let you know what the judges think when the results come in in two days.

Labels: new song, Nur Ein

posted by Jon Eric  12:19 AM 0 Comments 

New Songfight collaboration

Jon Eric has teamed up with Nigel "Sp00n" Clements to form Generic Sp00ns, the new band that is sure to dominate this next week's Songfight!

...For certain definitions of "Dominate."

It all started when Nigel posted this lovely set of reviews including one for my "Back from Juvie," which read as follows:

Maybe I've said this before, maybe not, but with a touch more humour you could easily forge quite a following via sites like Fump! you have a definate style that would sit easily with Dr. Demento fraternity (i believe), Possible Vote!

I contacted him and said "If you can bring the funny, I can bring the sunny." The result was this silly little number complete with an intentionally bad guitar solo.

New equipment alert! This song marks the maiden voyage of both my new Yamaha YDD-60 and my new MXL 9090 condenser microphone.

Enjoy!

Labels: collaboration, new gear, new song, Nigel Clements, songfight

posted by Jon Eric  1:48 AM 0 Comments 

New Songfight song!

Hey everyone! Still haven't finished recording the tracks for 14 Stories, but I've been getting some new gear lately, First and foremost, there's a new track for Songfight!

The title for this one was "Back from Juvie," and I took the "not-using-the-title-in-the-lyrics" route with it. My entry is here, and you might want to listen to the fight at the Songfight home page too, if you like, and vote for mine if you enjoyed it. The initial reviews are coming back quite favorable (like, way more than usual, no joke). I'm proud of it, and I think you'll enjoy it as well. At the very least, you can rest assured that it's the peppiest song in the fight.

Before I did that, though, I recorded a couple of long-overdue tracks. The first was a song that I wrote over six months ago and debuted live at a local event with some friends. I finally got around to recording it not long after I got my new microphone last month, and I'm happy to share it with you today. It's called "Corporate Conscience," and you can hear it by clicking on its title.

Not long after that, I finally got over some chronic procrastination issues, and finished a Coverfight assignment just about five years overdue. I'd been assigned to cover The Idiot Kings' song "So Aggravating" (not to be confused with my own song of the same name). Anyway. Confusing nomenclature aside, I finally recorded the cover, and you can hear it by clicking here.

In other news, I have a shiny new logo now! I'm grateful to Fishboy Rex for creating the old one for me, but I feel that this new one, with its sunburst background and shiny colors, more accurately reflects the style of the music I've been making lately. I tried to create a favicon out of it and failed miserably, but I figure anything is better than that old Hostmonster logo still being there.

Labels: logo, new songs, songfight

posted by Jon Eric  1:53 AM 0 Comments 

More FAWM

Eight of February's 28 days have passed, and I've got six demos to show for it.

New this evening are:
A cute ballad called "Take it from a Liar"
The emerging album's title track and probable closer, "14 Stories"
And a Mountain Goats-y song about college, called "Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop."

The latter is probably the best of this batch. Check out my FAWM page, and stay tuned for more!

Labels: FAWM, new songs

posted by Jon Eric  12:02 AM 0 Comments 

The Demos are Coming!

For those who didn't know, February is Album Writing Month. Last year, I tried participating, and wound up with two completed songs, only one of which made it online. This year, things seem to be going better, as I've already got three demos recorded and posted, and lyrics for five others, which I plan on recording tomorrow evening.

Check out my FAWM.org page for the goodies, or just go local and see them here, without the encumbrance of an actual site. Yeah.

Labels: FAWM, new songs

posted by Jon Eric  2:20 AM 0 Comments 

Songfight News!

I forgot to post a news update for the most recent Songfight, titled "Elegy for Industry," which featured an entry from yours truly. The results are in; I tied for ninth.

Among my competition, Raised by Wolves and Jim Tyrell stand out, and I recommend them both heartily.

Now let us turn our attention to the current fight, "Love Me a Little Bit More." Notice another entry from me (making this the first time in almost three years that I've entered two consecutive Songfights). You'll see that the artist is listed as Jon Eric and the Transpacific Babble Brigade. My two supporting guitarists are the loquacious Caravan Ray (hailing all the way from New Zealand), and the even more loquacious Billy's Little Trip (hailing all the way from California).

Also, Billy's Little Trip has taken it upon himself to arrange his own version of the same song. It awaits a few contributions from me before it's officially done, but as soon as he's ready, I'll have it up here on this site for you.

Till next time,
-Jon

Labels: new songs, songfight

posted by Jon Eric  9:41 PM 0 Comments 

New Song! "Walking the Border"

Okay, so it's been six months since I did anything on here. I've gone longer.

Anyway, the deadline for the next Songfight is in about thirteen hours, and it'll be updating sometime between two and seventy-two hours thereafter. And when it does, my new song, "Walking the Border," will be there. Since you've been so vigilant, waiting for the next update, I'll give it to you early. Have a listen.

Also, if you care at all about webcomics, you might want to check out my new project, The Webcomics Digest. I can't guarantee that I'll never cross-advertise.

Labels: new song, songfight, webcomics digest

posted by Jon Eric  12:05 AM 0 Comments