Maybe it’s pretty, maybe it’s garbage, but I think it’s listenable.
“What We Found” from the “album” “ImprovDemos”
My first not totally awful improv of 2012. It’s pretty. I don’t sing much. It’s mainly instrumentally driven. Anywho-
“Frankensense” from the “Album” “Oh I See What You Did There”
I don’t hate this. Probably the best version to date of the song I’ve written that has the best lyrics I’ll ever do. Explicitly Mundane. He & Him. Album “Someday We’ll Put a Jew in Space”. Tell your friends.
(I wrote this song originally, I shit you not, on a legal pad while working my first post-college job at an asbestos litigation law firm. This was before I had a piano to play, and before I had even tried teaching myself guitar. Think early 2009. I based the melody in my head between two songs- the first half mirrors Okkervil River’s “Girl at Port” while the second half is like a meth’d-up “Powder” by Bedhead. The lyrics have intentional meter, and there is literally no line that is thrown in for no reason. Everything alludes to everything else in the song. Best way to describe it? Someone feeling trapped in an apartment and smashing it’s windows from the inside in a cathartic fit. That’s what actually happens in the song, the only instance of “plot” really but of course it’s all metaphorical. It includes the best line I will ever write about sex- “White thighed earnest capitulations/ give us this day, forgive us our sins” and my best line intended for people in a rough patch to let them know things will get better- “No longer green with jealous rage/ and what you lost makes you feel saved” and a whole slew of lines that I independently love and would quote to people often if I didn’t have that little voice that tries to make sure I only use my narcissism on the internet- “The Snow fell down and burned your skin/ thank GOD it’s falling UP again.” Again. I don’t hate this)
heres a hastily done cover of a 90s song okay thanks i dont want to use punctuation today for some reason okay thanks bye
This is the first “okay” version of a song I improvised three days ago and just wrote lyrics for tonight. It’s pretty insubstantial but I’ve been told to keep it as it is “distinctly” me but “shows experimentation.” For whatever that’s worth. The first 15 seconds guitar play is the worst but it settles in nicely. And hey, if you like pick ups? This’ll be not awful to your ear holes.
“Carolina Sun” by Jeff GoodSmith from the album “A Song For the Deaf That Means It’s For You”
Here’s a basic idea of what it sounds like when I mess around on my electric guitar. Obvi improvised.
Here’s my first ever attempt at doing “Two Headed Boy Part 2.” The vocals are out of my range. But I’m close(r) to getting there, since my vocal range is probably 300% better than it was a year ago at this time.*
*this gives you a sense of how bad my voice was a year ago
Anyway, “Two Headed Boy Part 2” from the “album” “Jeff GoodSmith Ruins His Favorite Songs”
“Ghost Story” by Versus for elitish’s mixtape series.
Dream Bitch’s Maniacal Mechanic, for Elitish’s Mixtape Series
This is yet another improvised He & Him jam session track- Ian on guitar and vocals. For the first minute and a half I’m playing the tambourine. Then I come in with whistling. And then I sort of cut Ian off and improvise lyrics while he still plays guitar. And then he breaks me off and finishes the track. The more I listen to this the more I like it.
“I Only See Darkness” by He & Him from the “album” “Jeff Cuts Ian Off, Ian Cuts Jeff Off, There’s a Tambourine, What’s Up.” Recorded in a basement in Omaha.
This is probably the prettiest song I’ve ever been a part of. It is 100% improvised, and it’s another effort from my He & Him Omaha Jam Session. It involves Ian playing guitar/making it up as he goes along, and I started to sing along with it. I had no idea when melody/tempo shifts were happening so I was just trying to keep up, but I actually really like it.
Anyway, this is “A Cure To Me”, an improvised track by He & Him from the “album” “Someday We Will Put a Jew in Space.”
