Hey man. Writing lyrics is a funny nut to crack. Everybody's suggestions here are great and you should try them all. You never can tell what's going to work and - for me at least - it's a little different for each song. I've definitely done the "mumbling with authority" thing!

I'll say straight out that I'm not an expert, I only know what has worked for me. I've written songs that I thought were pretty good lyrically and definitely a whole bunch that were pretty bad, even embarrassing. So you know, take this all worth a grain of salt.

Mostly I just try to get in a frame of mind where things flow a bit. I have a couple different tricks I use to get something I like. I try to build a big old woodshed of stuff. Brainstorming basically. It's good to have a backlog of material to choose from or to spur more ideas.

One of my favorite methods of brainstorming is to get relaxed (using ones method of choice), put on headphones and just listen to other peoples music - people/bands whose lyrics I really like. While I'm listening I'll get little ideas that maybe rhyme with what I'm listening to, or maybe follow the same rhythm and I write them down. Sometimes one song will really get the juices flowing and I get a couple pages of stuff out of that one song. Do this a lot with a lot of different songs and build up that backlog. Then I try to forget about all of it for long enough that I don't quite remember what songs I was listening to, and I'm not still 'in the moment'. I almost want to feel like I'm reading it for the first time when I go back so that I can be distant enough to recognize the shitty parts. The most important part is when I go back and start mining that stuff I literally throw out %90 of it and just work with the %10 that makes me think "holy shit did I even write that? That's pretty damn good" and work from there.

On totally different tip, I'll take whatever song I'm working on and just make noises wherever I can. The idea being to just figure out what spots I'm actually capable of vocalizing with. This is like what Jonathan was saying above. I play guitar and sing in my band, so figuring out where I can sing is a big part of deciding what to say. A lot of times in that process certain words or phrases pop out that just sound good. Then it's a matter of building around those spontaneous phrases.

Here's another one. Carry a little notebook with you everywhere you go. It's crazy how all of a sudden shit starts popping into your head in line at the 7-11. Plus people say crazy shit all the time, and I write that down for later. In fact, I would say the best thing you can do is just write shit down constantly hahaha. You're friends will think you're a freak, but fuckem. Generate so much material that you have no choice but to jettison most of it - the gems will shine through.

- on one last thing. It can help if you have a buddy who's taste you respect and who you can take criticism from without getting pissed to bounce ideas off of - or even collaborate with.

Good luck man! Figuring this stuff out is fun and after a while you learn what works for you and things start to click a little bit.

I do a lot of the above as well.  Sometimes I'll write a couple cool lines and then think of the music that would fit the tone of the lines.  Other times I just use vocals as another instrument and don't even bother with lyrics.  I can't tell you how many shows I've played where I forgot, or haven't even written lyrics for a song.  Nobody cared, I just mumbled like I knew what I was doing and the energy of the song did the rest. In conclusion, don't stress about lyrics.

Hi Fuzzmeister. Nope, this is a much more current release, 2008 I think. It is self-titled, which makes Googling a lot harder. Apparently there are about a billion artists that have the word "Rodriguez" in the their name or album title... :-/ This is band I was talking about: http://www.myspace.com/rodriguezrock

But whoa, that other Rodriguez just blew my mind a little. The Monkeywrench cover "Sugar Man" on their album "Electric Children" (2000), always wondered where that came from. I absolutely love The Monkeywrench, a super-group worthy of the prefix "super". Thanks for the info!

Is this Rodriguez record you speak of "Cold Fact"? If so, it's from the early 70s and quite easily obtained through Amazon, on CD and vinyl.

http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Fact-Rodriguez/dp/B001BKVWYG/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1303246983&sr=1-1

The album was a big hit here in Australia at the time and still turns up second hand on vinyl quite often. 

This is all good stuff, keep it comin'!

In the "It's A Small World" department, it turns out it was actually Andy's blog that got me thinking about this stuff again, although I didn't know that at the time. Andy, I'm the same Sam that left a comment about the Rodriguez record. I thought it might be a lost '60s Spanish garage stomp or something, so I downloaded it and gave it a (virtual) spin. I could tell immediately that it was modern, and that sent me off on the hunt for more information. I do like the music, but am having trouble finding a copy to purchase in the USA.

Thanks to all who have replied so far, looking forward to more!

Age- 27, I believe it's OK to check out the stuff that's out of print and impossible to find.  New stuff that you can buy anywhere is a total no-no.  Buy the record, enjoy the cover art and lyrics sheet.

Age - 49.

New stuff - definitely a no-no. Give the bands a chance to sell some first ferchrissakes! If you have a blog and think you are doing this to help promote a band, maybe you should consider giving a link to their myspace or facebook instead. Most bands have enough full length songs on there to make a judgement call on whether their album is worth buying.

Downloading for a "taste" - nice theory and I'm sure some people do that and then go out and buy, but my gut feeling is that percentage is low. If blog owners really want that to happen, then why supply the mp3s in quality that's good enough to burn to CD? If the mp3s were provided in, say, 64kbps quality, people could still hear the album but wouldn't be  tempted to burn and keep it 'cause the quality would be poor. 

Really old music - jazz from the 30s for instance, stuff that would be out of copyright anyway I don't have so much of a problem with.

I go for option 1 regarding music that's almost impossible to get. It is and can not be the intention of music that such goes unheard to the masses. I discovered a lot of things this way!

As for new releases, I opt for the 'Other' option, that is with permission of the artist/label or it's representative. Especially for not so established bands this is a great way to showcase their music, which will pay itself of by more people attending a gig and buying your merch there. A lot of bands already offer releases to blogs because they know they will reach their audience this way.

There's a few things to consider anyway.

everyone has a budget, you just can't buy whatever you like, so back in the days this usually meant passing on some releases (and never know if you missed out on something cool, or find out years later). Not having the funds doesn't mean you can just go out and get it, but even then we had our ways and this hasn't changed, it just became digital. This is something you can never change as long as there is a demand and a price that doesn't match.

But at least now you can actually make a better informed decision by hearing the album (instead of a few songs on myspace or whatever) before you buy it. Okay it maybe tempting to save it to your drive but in my opinion those are mostly the albums that are okay to listen to for a short time but not worth buying, so eventually you'll end up deleting them anyway. I guess no harm done since there was never any intention to actually own such an album.

For promotional purposes I think services like Soundcloud are actually a better idea to showcase a release and that kind of promotion will help a record sell better without it being available for download (geeks excluded, they always know how to download things noone else can ;-)

I, for one, prefer buying vinyl and I also by any chance from the band itself at a concert. Still I'm downloading the same album so it saves me a lot of effort transfering it because I also want to listen to it when I travel or driving my car. Don't think that's a problem since I already bought it :-) Also more and more vinyl releases come with a download code which is a good thing to keep vinyl releases up and going!

I don't think there will be an end to this discussion, you can't prevent downloads or anything else for that matter by having laws and bountyhunters chasing the bad guys. It's an issue of economics and the best way to deal with it is that the illusion of value-for-money is met because yes you will want to have the real deal with all its artwork if it's worthy to you and in a competative price!

I'm 38 if it helps your survey :-)

Just heard this for the first time today (been away on vacation).  This is such a great way to get taste of what is here at GPH.  Thanks for all your hard work putting this thang together, Kopper.  And thanks to all the bands and everyone else that helped making this series happen.  Looking forward to Vol. 2.  

Definitely Back from the Grave, Lost Legends of Surf Guitar, Born Bad, and Loud Fast and Out of Control.

Hard to compare comps with >= 3 volumes to those single volume versions.  On the single vol. version; Hang it out to Dry (how could it not be great with Lily on it) and I Was a Teenage Caveman excel.  But there are so many good ones that is almost worth starting a list for the comps that just don't deliver......although the Chosen Few from the aforementioned list drew my attention because never heard before -  thanks, now I must find or cannot sleep.

Finally, I am a fan of all regional comps because you get a good local history lesson while listening.  Just about anything Texas is worth a listen. 

Never heard of this, but if Ning is up-to-date on this kinda stuff, then it should be. But the question is really if NING is compatible. If no one here can help you out, you might want to direct your query to http://help.ning.com

Good luck!

I was thinking about blowing 3 bux on tapaTalk for my ipod (it's an ap that logs into forums & allows the user to read & post from their iPod or iPad)- I'm not sure, but I don't think GPH is compatible - any tech gurus got the straight dope on that?

I don't recall the other bands. I spent part of the time ine the space next door. I'm an old person and my memory isn't so good without my glasses.

Just curious if you remember what other bands you saw in that lineup...Probably one of the biggest musicfests that is "variety" nowadays is "Hootenanny" out in So. Cal...It appears to be geared more towards the greaser/hot rod crowd with its share of psychobilly/cowpunk/underground country acts although they will throw in some punk bands as well...

Mr. Knuckles McGrumpy said:

I went in '97, I think it was 97 anyway. Woggles were there amongst others. 506 had somer great shows. I saw SCOTS there and they were flinging banana pudding at the crowd from huge bowls. I also saw Murder City Devils, which was a great show. There are so many 'fests focused on tight genres these days, that you don't see many of the variety-type shows.

 

I went in '97, I think it was 97 anyway. Woggles were there amongst others. 506 had somer great shows. I saw SCOTS there and they were flinging banana pudding at the crowd from huge bowls. I also saw Murder City Devils, which was a great show. There are so many 'fests focused on tight genres these days, that you don't see many of the variety-type shows.

Unfortunately, very few trivia nights are geared to the stuff we all like.  I mean, if someone asked questions like, "What record did April March want in return for a super-rare Shitbirds' recording," well, that'd be the first Del Monas record.  But something tells me that's not gonna be on Jeopardy.

I looked on my current hard drive...Nothing there.  I'll have to check a few of my old computers next.  I know one of them had a folder marked "61", meaning the next ish of the mag.  I should also see if I can find the No Place Fast stuff.

kopper said:

I'm just amazed you can remember all of these details, not only of the old shows and festivals but even of your writings. You have quite the memory. I bet you're good on trivia nights. :)

I for one am looking forward to whatever you end up finding and posting... hell, even if you can't find ALL of it, just post what you can find. This is a potential treasure trove of info detailing "the golden age" of the garage-rock revival scene.

'GOOD SUITS & FIGHTIN' BOOTS' by THE BONNEVILLES

VIDEO FOR THE NEW SINGLE @  http://youtu.be/vyLSnHyueqg

also Video I added for the opening track on the album @ http://youtu.be/0VoZ5-nm5xY

been listening to The Bawdies, from Japan, who I stumbled across the other day.

Hey! Thanks Doc!!

Doc Sanchez said:

The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies said:

Errrr OK....'Grinderman 2' by Grinderman, 'Fishing For Zombliments' by Cyco Sanchez Supergroup (free on Bandcamp!!!) and currently loving Vol.1 of the Hideout Comp series 'It Came from The Hideout'........... 

Hey, thanks!

By the way, I totally can give this compliment back, I really dig your tunes!

Non-garagepunk stuff fresh on my turntable is the new Mountain Goats album "All Eternals Deck". Fine songwriter stuff with a punkrock attitude.

Personal and the Pizzas! Soooooo good and catchy and fun. 

Thanx everyone for all the suggestions.

Lol no, Beach Boys of course

enzo said:

Like Marky Mark?

Renato Carvalho said:

D# minor for me. anything sharp minor really but that's the first chord to my favourite verses ever, Good Vibrations.

Jimi by Butthole Surfers? I love how it goes completely different almost pastoral near the end...

Or maybe I'm just thinking its goth rock because I listened to it at the same time I was listening to loads of goth :)

Heehee...and was listening to Rudimentary Peni, had totally forgotten about them gonna go youtube them now...

But my fave goth-y song is "Jack on Fire" by Gun Club

Tune in, we play lots of those bands,

also on I-Tunes radio under Alternative Rock

Babylon Street Radio

Hey! Thanks!!......glad you liked it......!!

trashman said:

Not tacky at all - posting that is a reason a site like this exists.  Thanks for sharing because I really like it.  Reminds me of something I would hear at 3am on some underground radio station with no talking DJ so the arist would never be revealed.  Then I would spend obsessive months trying to find it again.  Love the guitar work for that cover.  I will pass this along.

The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies said:

Good call on the Remains and The Watchband!,

Errrr......tacky thing to do I know, to put your own cover into a thread like this....but here's our Maggies Farm cover......