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No New Memories
Words: 05-03 ~ 06 -1994
Music: 05-03 ~ 06 -1994
What’s It All About?
Years after losing touch with a woman who I loved dearly and who put me through a good deal of hell, I heard from a mutual friend that she wasn’t doing much differently by her husband. The knowledge created some mixed feelings… it dredged up all the stuff we had gone through, made me feel bad for the current guy, and made me very, very grateful that I wasn’t in his position any more.
I played this song a lot in my solo acoustic sets, and since it was one of those songs Gary Fitch insisted need a full band treatment, that’s what it got when we formed Running Erin with Erin Foster and Tony Dare.
The first version included here is a music video from the “mocumentary” Running Erin made with Not Afraid! Productions in 2000 or so. Then there’s a live version from Running Erin, and finally my original from the cassette four-track mini-album from 1994, “Hundred Seller.”
Lyrics:
When I hear tell of the things
That you do
I’m reminded of the days
Of me and you
You would think such things would fade
From my mind
Yet the games you played
Have grown clearer over time
I can hear your voice like I’m
Back there again
Sayin’ “There’s nothing there
That guy is just a friend”
It gets ’round to me
Your latest escapade
I just shake my head
I know, I’ve already played
I have felt the fear
The jealousy, the dread
I have trembled helplessly
Hangin’ by your thread
I remember this
That
And the other things
All the pain you put me though
Yeah, on and on
I could sing
I remember, I remember
Though I wish that I did not
Just one thing
To ease my mind
Just one thing have I got
I’m glad
That I have
No new memories of you
I feel sorry for the man who’s trapped
By you
I know he wonders what are your lies
And what is true
I really feel for him and I hope
That he breaks free
Still I can’t help thinkin’
“Better him than me”
Support Independent Music
The media files on this page are provided for your enjoyment — you can listen, and even download the MP3 files, and not pay a dime. I encourage you to share them with friends, provided no one changes or sells the files, and that you attribute them to me.
I do hope you’ll consider contributing an amount proportional to how much you like these songs. When you pay for music on this site, you declare yourself to be a patron of independent creative endeavors… and my supporter. That means a great deal, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Recommended price: $1.00
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Music Video:
MP3s:
No New Memories by Matthew Wayne Selznick w/ Running Erin (live) [4:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (108) No New Memories by Matthew Wayne Selznick [4:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (105)Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Words: 03-21-1989 with Theresa Copell
Music: 03-21-1989
What’s It All About?
Theresa Copell was my girlfriend for three or four years (depending on whether you count sequentially or comprehensively) in the late eighties. First girl I lived with, and my partner in a lot of, as they say, DIY independent creative endeavors, including my first actively gigging band, psychopathway.
She wrote a lot of poetry, some of which became songs. I saw a fragment in one of her notebooks, expanded it, and wrote the music. It became “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” a kind of word-picture of an elderly person — perhaps one with a difficult, colorful past — easing into death. Theresa was a little miffed at my interpretation and the final product, since it apparently didn’t match where she was going with the original.
Still, I think it’s a nice song, and it was a staple at nearly every one of my acoustic gigs for many years. By the way, it has nothing in common with the James Agee / Walker Evans book
The first version here was recorded live at a coffee house in Long Beach, California in the early nineties. No effects or overdubs.
Lyrics:
Laughter comes easy now
Not so hard to be alone
Not so bad, this empty room
Let us now praise famous men
Disappointed faces
That fall into my heavy gaze
They’ve been haunting me for days
The crimson summer room
Edge me slowly into night
Where I slip into ten high
Twilight had one had a name
Right or wrong, I’ve forgotten
Loud inside this empty room
Let us now praise famous men
I, I’m going traveling
I won’t be going far
Paradise waits behind closed eyes
Friends I haven’t seen in a long time
Resting patiently for me to find
Let us now praise famous men
For I can say I knew them when
Now I’m certain that I will again
Lying in this summer room
It’s so calm to be alone
Never thought I’d feel this way
Let us now praise famous men
Worried eyes keep the vigil
I hear their voices in a haze
But soon they will wash away
Support Independent Music
The media files on this page are provided for your enjoyment — you can listen, and even download the MP3 files, and not pay a dime. I encourage you to share them with friends, provided no one changes or sells the files, and that you attribute them to me.
I do hope you’ll consider contributing an amount proportional to how much you like these songs. When you pay for music on this site, you declare yourself to be a patron of independent creative endeavors… and my supporter. That means a great deal, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Recommended price: $1.00
Listen and Download
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by Matthew Wayne Selznick (live) [4:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (93)Second “Sister”
Words: 02-14-16-2001
Music: 02-14-16-2001
What’s It All About?
This was written thinking about my old high-school girlfriend. She and I had a relationship that, as I remember it, was even more tumultuous and full of drama than most at that age. It wasn’t until twenty years later that we finally understood: our continual crises weren’t thanks to my melodramatic nature, her abusive father, or her own self destructive tendencies. Well, not entirely. Turns out she’s also had a form of schizophrenia that wasn’t diagnosed until late in her thirties.
Damn, that explained a lot.
The Sonic Youth
Lyrics:
Can you train your sadness
Optimize reluctance
Go on record baby
Stand behind
Your mind
Do you hold surprises
As you dodge inquiries
Open letters waiting
Who knows what
You’ll find?
I went down to
Meet a friend
‘Til his sister came over
Blew my mind again
Can you find the answer
Sanity relapser
Go out on a limb
That’s where
I am
All of the time
So pay it no mind
Stand by your mind
Support Independent Music
The media files on this page are provided for your enjoyment — you can listen, and even download the MP3 files, and not pay a dime. I encourage you to share them with friends, provided no one changes or sells the files, and that you attribute them to me.
I do hope you’ll consider contributing an amount proportional to how much you like these songs. When you pay for music on this site, you declare yourself to be a patron of independent creative endeavors… and my supporter. That means a great deal, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Recommended price: $1.00
Listen and Download
Triple Bind Knot
Music: Circa 1993
What’s It All About?
Shortly before our original drummer, Jon Strunk, left the band, PIGBAT recorded as many songs as possible during a practice session in Anaheim, California. Near the end, we just started a jam that just… felt good. I’ve said it before… this was the right band at the right time for me, and making music with Jon and Kris was cathartic and powerful for me. This song, while objectively just a rambling, direction-less jam session, puts me right back in that room with them.
Lyrics:
(instrumental)
Support Independent Music
The media files on this page are provided for your enjoyment — you can listen, and even download the MP3 files, and not pay a dime. I encourage you to share them with friends, provided no one changes or sells the files, and that you attribute them to me.
I do hope you’ll consider contributing an amount proportional to how much you like these songs. When you pay for music on this site, you declare yourself to be a patron of independent creative endeavors… and my supporter. That means a great deal, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Recommended price: $1.00
Listen and Download
Triple Bind Knot by PIGBAT w/ Matthew Wayne Selznick [2:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (153)It Just Goes To Show
Words: 10-13-1991
Music: 10-13-1991
What’s It All About?
This mournful, quasi-country ballad was another of the artistic by-products of the soap-opera year of 1991. It didn’t see too much live play when on my perpetual, intermittent coffeehouse tour… but I like the way it turned out when I finally recorded it. Seems to have a kind of Rolling Stones / Faces vibe (if I do say so myself…!)
The lyrics say it all… end of the road!
Lyrics:
Well, we used to share something
Seems like a long long time ago
Now it feels so cold and empty
Our love’s packed up and set to go
I did everything you wanted
I tried to keep my doubts inside
I tried faith, and I had patience
Told myself you had no reason to lie
I guess that’s why I’m feeling sad
I thought you
Were the best love I’d ever had
I guess it just goes to show
You said you thought we could survive
I wonder what it is you think we have
I know what I thought we were
But you’ve got to do more
If you want it to last
Last time I fell in love
I said
I’ve had enough
I guess that just goes to show
That’s it
We’ll say goodbye
And we can kid ourselves
We can say it’s “just for now”
Take back my things
Give you back yours
And stand beside ourselves
Before we walk away somehow
Support Independent Music
The media files on this page are provided for your enjoyment — you can listen, and even download the MP3 files, and not pay a dime. I encourage you to share them with friends, provided no one changes or sells the files, and that you attribute them to me.
I do hope you’ll consider contributing an amount proportional to how much you like these songs. When you pay for music on this site, you declare yourself to be a patron of independent creative endeavors… and my supporter. That means a great deal, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Recommended price: $1.00
Listen and Download