Nobody on the Subway

track name: Nobody on the Subway
album and band name: from All the Songs by Absofacto

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T-Shirt + All the Songs

The "No Power" artwork on American Apparel 50/50 shirts. Super soft and comfortable like a worn-in vintage shirt, and printed with water-based inks so the print doesn't have that plasticky hard feel (it's also way better for the environment). I'm pretty sure this will be your new favorite shirt.

It also comes with an immediate download of every single Absofacto song released so far in any format you want.

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Digital Track

Immediate download of Nobody on the Subway in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

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Limited Edition Poster + T-Shirt + All the Songs

Poster: A limited edition 18"x24" poster designed, hand numbered, and screen printed by The Silent Giants. It's a limited run of 100. They can be signed by request.

Shirt: "No Power" artwork on American Apparel 50/50 shirts. Super soft and comfortable like a worn-in vintage shirt, and printed with water-based inks so the print doesn't have that plasticky hard feel (it's also way better for the environment). I'm pretty sure this will be your new favorite shirt.

It also comes with an immediate download of every Absofacto song in any format, other than the remixes and the songs on Kiko.

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Limited Edition Poster + All The Songs

A limited edition 18"x24" poster, designed and screen printed by The Silent Giants. There will only ever be 100 of this design printed, and each one is slightly different because of the printing process. They are hand numbered, and can be signed by request.

It also comes with a download of every Absofacto song in any format. If you've already bought some of this music, you can apply whatever you paid to a poster if you want to. Just send me an email beforehand and we can sort it out.

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about: I've been focusing really hard on the Mason Proper album all month, but I gave myself a couple days to get an Absofacto song done because I'd be really depressed if I missed a month. Normally I spend about fifteen days on each Absofacto song (not full days), but this time I had to go through the writing, recording, and mixing process in three.

I started recording before I had any idea what it was going to be. I just flipped out and said to myself, "Self, play that one drum beat you like!" and so I quickly set up the one microphone I had and played it. When I listened back I noticed a kind of overtone ringing coming from some undampened drum head somewhere on the kit. Rather than fix it, I just figured out what note it was and decided that would be the key of the song so that whatever else I added wouldn't clash. Then I was sad that my drums sounded so monauralisticish because of my only having/using one mic, so I tried to play them again identically so I could make them sound stereophonical.

Then I plugged my guitar into the direct input on the microphone preamp I was recording the drums through, and the level was all wrong for the guitar. It was turned up way too loud and was distorting. I said to myself, "Self, you don't have time to be turning all kinds of knobs! I guess that this is going to be your guitar sound."

After working out some guitar parts, it was time for vocals. And I said to myself, "Self, you don't have time to be writing all kinds of words!! Make the vocal melody sparse!!" And so I broke up a sentence into a long amount of time. "There. Goes. Someone. That nobody knows."

I liked that a lot, so then to make a long story slightly less long I worked day and night for three days and finished the mix. Most of the third day was spent in frustration just trying to get the final mix printed without any computer glitches. But eventually I did.

Sometimes it's really fun to make things under such a crazy deadline, even if it's self-imposed. Otherwise I give into the side of myself that wants to labor over every little decision. You would be surprised at the little decisions I labor over.

As far as the end result... I guess I just have to say that the weather has been sunny and BEAUTIFUL, I'm in good spirits, and I think you can hear all that in the song.
lyrics: There goes someone that nobody knows

Nobody on the subway
Nobody in the winter
Nobody with a flashlight
Nobody on the subway

Nobody at all

Great news catalog tenement
mailbox shifting in the window
halfway home
don't know when to walk away
don't want to know when to walk away

There goes someone that nobody knows

Nobody in a foreign land
Nobody by a window
Nobody who's a ghost now
Nobody on the subway

Nobody at all

Concrete denizens overtone
gardeners leaving by the busload
blue skies won
sounds like something I would say
don't want to know when to walk away
don't want to know when to walk away

I dunno, something in the world could know you,
but all in all nothing that I am aware of knows you now.
credits: from All the Songs, track released 31 May 2010
Written and recorded by Jonathan Visger. Mastered by Massive Mastering.
tags: tags: alternative experimental pop indie rock Ann Arbor
license: All rights reserved
feed: Feeds for this album, this artist