raising heller

so, i kind of cheated this week. time ran out on me so i recorded a cover song. this is by one of my favorite bands, pedro the lion (as recorded lo-fi on the iPhone). i don’t think i do it any justice but it was in my head so i thought i lay it down so that at least i did something for week 3. fair warning: this song is about as bummed out as it gets. fair warning #2: it in no way is a declaration on the status of my relationship with my wife.

[audio:Week 3- Options-Pedro the Lion cover.mp3]
steven heller – options (pedro the lion cover)

steven's side project

so, here’s the song for week two. i’m not normally one to explain a song ahead of time, but for the sake of simplicity i’m going to do it here. our protagonist finds himself high on a mountain excursion with his significant other. in the course of the relationship he hasn’t been as good to her as he should have and he knows this. an accident on the mountain leaves them in a position where he chooses to sacrifice his life in order to save hers, and all he hopes is that in the end she’ll remember this last act of sacrifice rather than his harsh words. enjoy. or not.

p.s. – as with the last song, it was recorded entirely on my iPhone (which will most likely be the case with all of these songs) so i make no apologies for the quality.

[audio:Its_Hard_to_Breathe_at_this_Altitude.mp3]

steven heller – it’s hard to breathe at this altitude

steven's side project, words

a lot has happened since i posted last. we had a baby, so… there’s that… (there will be some separate posts on that, so i won’t go into too much detail here). yeah, it’s been eventful. one of the undertakings that i’ve recently… undertaken, is a 90 day goals group. there 15 or so of us that have all set personal goals in 5 different categories. physical, mental, financial, spiritual, and personal. we have a partner that we check in with twice a day and talk to about our progress. it’s been really rad and i’ve already seen some killer things come out of it in the 2 weeks that we’ve been doing it. my personal goal is to write one new song per week. i’m not that consistent with picking up my guitar an actually trying to write stuff, so i figure that this will force me into being creative. if they don’t suck too bad, i’ll post the songs here for your listening (dis)pleasure. i’ve finished 2 songs so far. the first one is posted below. word of warning: it was recorded on my iphone so the quality is about what you’d expect. well, to be fair, i think the sound quality is actually pretty good for a phone. i haven’t recorded the 2nd song yet as i want to properly record it with some real gear, so hopefully i’ll have that one up in a few days. anyway, here’s the song for week #1.

[audio:Week 1_ Cafe_Bleu.mp3]

steven heller – café bleu

steven's side project, words

i used to be in this band, sir jackson and the long ride, and while i’m not trying to boast, we were pretty good. if you click here and then click on “Music” at the top of the page you can download all 5 glorious tracks of our E.P., “from now on, you answer to me”. sir jackson was one of those bands that, not unlike buddy holly or richie valens, was extinguished much too young. to this day nate and i will call each other up with a new sir jackson tune that the world needs to hear. alas, it can never happen. well, a couple months ago, nate called me up with a tune that he wrote called “death word”. we both agreed that it needed to be recorded so that the masses could once again hear the fury that was sir jackson and the long ride. so, over the last couple months, here in the heller studios (or, lucky laboratories, as i call them) i’ve been putting nate’s vision to digital “tape” as it were. and with his ear on board, we’ve created another tune that we’re proud to add to the sir jackson and the long ride catalogue. enjoy the tune below.

p.s. – for those of you unfamiliar with sir jackson, i should tell you that our sound was what i like to call garage/surf rock (though we were definitely moving more towards a garage/surf/metal sound). everything was instrumental. no vocals minus the occasional screams (i can take credit for those) and between song banter/rock talk at live shows. so, if you’re waiting for the lyrics to kick in, you’ll be waiting a while. we didn’t just forget them.

[audio:SirJacksonAndTheLongRide-DeathWord.mp3]

download here.

p.p.s. – bonus points if you can tell me what song i sampled that opening bell from.

music of the week, steven's side project

so, i’ve been listening to some alt. country stuff lately and have kind of been getting into it. for those of you who are crying “heretic!”, don’t worry it’s not that kind of country. just some good poppy stuff. anyway, i’ve decided i want to try my hand at writing a country tune, so here’s the result. i figured it had to be about something sad, so don’t take this as a reflection of my marriage or anything. anyway, here you go…

[audio:Steven_Heller-Country_Break-up_Song_(Demo).mp3]

to download, right-click here and choose “save as…”

heller family tunes, music of the week, steven's side project

these are songs that don’t necessarily fit into the scope of what i would call “heller family music”. these songs were either from previous bands that i was in (such as t.a.n.g., project i.p., or sir jackson and the longride) or maybe just songs that i didn’t deem up to heller family standards. anyway, enjoy. or as it quite likely to be the case, endure.

t.a.n.g. – t.a.n.g. is here to save the day (we’re on our way hip hip hooray).mp3 – lyrics
i think this was the first song that we ever wrote together as a band. at least it was the first one that we were really proud about. this is also the only real “studio” recording that t.a.n.g. ever made as a band. we recorded this in the garage of our drummer, stephanie’s, house. it’s pretty rough and you can’t hear the vocals that well, but it really brings back some great memories from me.

[audio:T.A.N.G.-T.A.N.G.IsHereToSaveTheDay(We’reOnOurWayHipHipHooray).mp3]

t.a.n.g. – temporary restraining order.mp3 – lyrics
this song was written to be played in t.a.n.g, a band i was in a long time ago. i think we played it twice but never really got it down. i recorded it because i thought it was cool. i was listening to a lot of the muffs at the time.

[audio:T.A.N.G.-TemporaryRestrainingOrder.mp3]

======================================================
the following t.a.n.g. songs were all recorded live at a band practice in our drummers garage. be aware, the sound quality is really bad. the vocals are almost non-existant (click the “lyrics” link for further clarification). at the beginning of each song you can hear dan, the brother of brad the bass player, shout out the title.

t.a.n.g. – lazy eye.mp3 – lyrics
i actually had a girlfriend at the time that i wrote this that had a lazy eye when she was a child. i wasn’t thinking about that when i wrote it, and when i told her about the song she got kind of offended, i think. it was pretty funny.

[audio:T.A.N.G.-LazyEye.mp3]

t.a.n.g. – mom’s my biggest fan.mp3 – lyrics
a funny story: we got asked by a friend to play at his wedding. we were stoked beyond belief. well, when we announced that we were going be playing ‘mom’s my biggest fan’ a lady shouted out, “how about mom’s my only fan!” it was one of the funniest things i’ve ever heard. anyway, the sight of t.a.n.g. playing a wedding is indelibly etched onto my brain, as well as those of some very shocked wedding-goers.

[audio:T.A.N.G.-Mom’sMyBiggestFan.mp3]

t.a.n.g. – super-man-eater-death-machine.mp3 – lyrics
this song started as just a song title. it was written after a groovie ghoulies show. a title of one their songs gave me the idea for the above title somehow. and together, t.a.n.g. made the magic happen.

[audio:T.A.N.G.-Super-Man-Eater-Death-Machine.mp3]

t.a.n.g. – in the family.mp3 – lyrics
we had it all figured out that we were going to write this 7 or 8 song rock-opera about the mafia or la cosanostra. it would be called, “this thing of ours”. unfortunatly, we only got two songs completed and this is the only one that we were ever able to play live (which i think ticked a lot of people off because it was almost 5 minutes long). the other was ‘scarapone’. we had titles for the others which included, ‘hey, what’s up with this horse head?’ and… well, that’s the only one that i can remember. the world really missed out on this genius piece of magic.

[audio:T.A.N.G.-InTheFamily.mp3]

======================================================

directions to download music: right click on the link(s) and select “save target as…”, then select a place to save the mp3. now, as long as you have a program like windows media player, or winamp installed (i’m sure you do) you just need to double-click on the file that you just saved and it should play.

steven's side project