jbirdbirdbird - Tumblr blog

[jbirdbirdbird]

here's a pic from the first show i played with my band and the following is yet another clip from that song i wrote for them :3 (our drummer Alex in the background 😒)

i'm doing some bass harmonics in the first riff and again i'm singing in this one!!

lastly, here's a video of use at our last show >.<

mwah <3

[jbirdbirdbird]

little chord progression i wrote today to calm down. this legal name change shit ain't easy but we're almost there. i hope you enjoy!

i don't have any cables at home rn so i can't play through my amp 😞 for now i will play outside (it's 12C my guitar can handle it i think)

[jbirdbirdbird]

haiii again >.< this is the white jazzmaster i mentioned in my previous post!! i love this thing so much.

also this song is in an open tuning i made up: CFFDgc. the last song/post was in standard :3

that's all!!

mwah <3

[jbirdbirdbird]

haiiii :3 another little thang i been working on!!

sorry for posting incredibly inconsistently, my inspiration is rather elusive :/

also i think this guitar i'm using in the video is maybe my second best sounding one. i love this harmony so much, though my best is my white jazzmaster (maybe partially for sentimental reasons). that one will be featured in another post shortly!!

mwah <3

[jbirdbirdbird]

here's a snippet of a song i wrote for my band @stadiumeleven on instagram!! so now you get a janelle singing/screaming reveal 🙈 and all of us playing our respective parts :3

this song is really cool for us because it kind of utilizes all our influences (some names will not be reflected in the clip) like Jimmy Eat World, Piebald, The Smiths, Title Fight, American Football, Free Throw, and Mom Jeans (that's theirs not me i promise!!)

my bandmates and i come up with the most god awful (in the best way) song titles:

- It's All Too Muck / Mittens is Getting Lonely

- BadwaterVideos2009

^only real ones (total losers) will get this^

- You Can Never Divide by Zero... Unless You're Chuck Norris

- Well Adjusted Clown Posse

- Huge Lebowski. Like, HUGE.

- Vasectomy at Claire's

- I Made Pants, Also I Hate Every Part of Myself That Hurt You

- Just Wait Until You Try First Hand Smoke

and many more! (please don't steal any of these we're really proud of our stupidity)

also an emo smiled?! 😦

[jbirdbirdbird]

just rebuilt my pedalboard so it's more focused for bass :3

also bought that new lil guy in the top left!! it's called the analogizer which is supposed to make my tone sound a lot warmer!!

will post a video (maybe) tomorrow of me testing out it's functionality >.<

[jbirdbirdbird]

Queer music with trans undertones.

That's a topic that I've only breached recently. Call me a little baby queer, but I never knew the wealth of cool music done by very cool people before this. There's a wide range of genres and different types of lyrics to go along with it. In this post, I'll focus down on music that I personally like. It may not be for you and that's perfectly understandable.

Glass Beach is a very cool band and their first album, while unrefined, has 2 songs in particular which I'm obsessed with.

Bedroom community is such a fun song and really holds true to much of my life experiences throughout my life. Because I live in an environment that does its best to isolate queer folk, that meant that the only way I could explore my gender identity and my sexual preferences was through the internet. And while not the point of the song, the song really gets me pumped up to be an annoying blasphemous little gremlin to all the nasty christo-fasc out there.

This song brings me to tears every time. The lyrics are just insanely personal and I think many trans femmes could connect with this song. Being misgendered by your peers and especially your family. Needing a desperate escape. Tackling with adulthood. The little holiday feeling of getting your HRT. It's much. It's so much. I'm bursting into tears even as I type this out. This song is so powerful. I can't help it! It's a song about me! Just for me and me alone! It's so personal aa!

While this song doesn't bring the same reaction from me, the lyrics and the melody is so melancholic and it's such a wonderful song. One of their later and more "mature" works as a band. It's great.

Now I'll do some randomly assorted different artists. I haven't explored their music as deeply as Plastic Beach. But these songs are a highlight for me. And I'm usually a really chaotic listener anyway.

This song is simple but it rocks. While I'm a gender conforming and very woman identifying trans femme, I'm also aware of the absurdity of the gender binary. And I think that even someone like me is inherently confusing and terrifying to the social systems that uphold this nonsensical binary. This song is a good way to remind ourselves how absurd and pointless our divide between "males" and "females" is not based around chromosomes or other confused markers but purely on cultural indicators of identity.

This song's lyrics are wonderful. It kind of reflects my recent posts on Tumblr and my frustration on weirdo internet people obsessed with my genitals and being creeps. Because bigotry is creepy and weird. The chorus of this song is especially really good and I find myself humming it along sometimes.

I'm not into ska, but I really enjoy this song in particular from this genre. The lyrics are fun and the theme of breaking apart and mixing gender identities is fun. It's a fun song. Because once gender stops being used as an authoritarian tool to enforce a binary, it can be fun finding the way to express yourself.

This is some of the stuff I've discovered recently. I think the main reason I'm making this post is a bit more of a serious and grim topic that I've touched upon a bit. I live in the Balkans and I live in a city that's infamous for street fights and toxic masculinity. You can imagine that being a trans femme, even if I pass well, still sets me up for a bunch of dangers. My country's politicians are conservative enough to the point that any idea of rights to LGBT folk isn't even considered, with concepts of queerness being considered a "threat" to the "traditional" family structure. Of course, all of this is a bunch of nonsense.

But it means that spaces for queer people are difficult to find. Apparently people congregate on Facebook, but Facebook where I live at is essentially Twitter. I'm not interested in torturing myself with that. That's left me feeling very isolated. I've recently actually tried to join some local Discord servers, but they were overwhelmingly dominated by cis gay men that seem to only be interested in sex. That's just not for me.

I think listening to music like this helps me feel less alone and more hopeful for the future. If anyone out there is dealing with the same loneliness I am, please find music that reflects your feelings. You'll feel a bit better about the world, knowing that you're not alone and your ideas aren't as foreign as you think.

You're wonderful.

You're valid.

And you're rad as heck.

Queer, trans, non-binary, non-conforming and any fun mixture of sexual orientation. You're the best!

[jbirdbirdbird]

something i came up with in like the last 5 minutes

mwah <3

[jbirdbirdbird]

i went for a walk at like 1am and it was so fun i felt so mysterious (i smoked a cigarette)

i always try to just think of lyrics on these late night walks and sometimes it works but more often than not i just overthink and somehow don't get anything out of that

oh well <3

[jbirdbirdbird]

this is an acoustic version of a song i wrote a few years ago, it's in 10/8 which is fun and a little obnoxious heheh. a little depressed and anxious and overthink-y right now so i am partaking in activities (at least i'm trying to) that occupy my mind better

playing this on my grandpa's nylon string guitar because i miss him

at least i'm fine as hell

[jbirdbirdbird]

what i came up with today :3

one of my friends reminded me of Mellotrons* and i wrote this with them in mind! i'm doing a few funky things with this progression: i'm not playing in a odd time signature but i have the chords repeat after 5 measures which makes it feel odd. i have my guitar tuned to CGAGGC in 432hz which is something i think i came up with (very Sonic Youth inspired tuning though). lastly i also have a Mellotron emulator pedal so i used the string section and flute settings in that order here!

let me know which setting serves the song better >.<

*Mellotrons are analog keyboards which means they aren't digital/computerized. to get different sounds they used tapes to record different instruments (ex. flutes, orchestras, choirs, brass instruments, etc.) playing notes and each key you pressed in whatever given setting would play the pre-recorded tapes for those notes!!

a famous use of a real mellotron (not my silly emulator pedal) would be The Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever where Paul McCartney used the Flute setting

[jbirdbirdbird]

feeling super dysphoric as of late still but i will get past it and maybe even post something actually music related tonight we'll see. i've just been super anxious and haven't got more than 15 hours of sleep in the last 5 days, it might be showing in my eyes lately but oh well. again we will get past this <3

been rocking the 99% natural look lately (i've been lazy)

[jbirdbirdbird]

another new song i've been working on :3

kinda went for a midwest emo influence (you'd hear it especially in a full band context with a vocalist) mostly inspired by the band HUM. i'm not really doing anything super funky or special with this one, just having fun!!

‼️ PHOTOSENSITIVY WARNING ‼️

the filter moves around a lot, it's not really flashing lights but it might be overstimulating to some

[jbirdbirdbird]

i've been very anxious and dysphoric these last few days but listening this album has made it a little more bearable. i hope if you're struggling with any mental health issues, this might help you too! you are beautiful and i see you <3

apple music user i know😞

[jbirdbirdbird]

i tried to make it a loop as best i could 😭

this bass is tuned to E standard in 432hz as opposed to the standard 440hz because i'm quirky for no reason. the key of the riff is either A major if you want to be boring or E mixolydian if you're feeling a little adventurous, i feel like it's the latter just because i relate the rest of the song to E as the root note. i've been messing around with tapping a lot recently and trying different time signatures (this riff is in 5/4) and i'll eventually get into polyrhythms when i'm comfortable playing any time signature on its own!! i'm also using a chorus and room sized reverb through my bass amp just to add that extra dreamy flavour.

i don't know what the fuck to call the genre of this :( i don't feel like it's jazz because there's no real swing to it. i don't really want to call it emo because it's not particularly harsh. it's too complicated to be dreampop so i guess it's prog? fusion maybe? idk

mwah <3

it's 6pm and i'm pretty much ready for bed :(

[jbirdbirdbird]

[jbirdbirdbird]