Frozen Taco

Dance Version of ‘Outside My Window’

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:41:25 +0000

A dance version of “Outside My Window” was performed in China by DJ Davide Succi with special guest, longtime FT guitarist, Theron Welch, on the guitar. The show took place in the city of Haikou, on the island province of Hainan, right on the beach! “Outside My Window” was picked because of it’s simple synth line and singable melody. There are numerous versions of the dance version of the song floating around (look for those to be collected and made available on this site), but this live version of the song was arranged especially for the performance in Hainan, China. Parts of this version of the song, which already contains a ton of new material for the guitar, were written and arranged on the day of the performance.

Select Guitar Tunes

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:49:00 +0000

Here are some select instrumentals over the years. From oldest to newest:

Construction of a Calendar (circa 1988) is probably the first “successful” FT guitar tune. The song was so named because it “made your day”. I believe it made its way on to the radio as the background music for Atlanta Brave’s baseball reports in Columbus, Georiga.
The tune Igor (1990) was inspired from the prominent 16th-note drum pattern that the song features. It’s a simple rockin’ metal instrumental; just guitar, bass, and drums!
Ode to Sosaria (1991) was inspired by and pays homage to the Ultima series of computer games. Now if that’s not nerdy, I don’t know what is.
Mind the Dragon (1992) was created during a period of making movie soundtracks and is therefore one of many from this era. I chose this one because it’s different, raw-sounding, and ends with thumpin’ hip hop bass. Dragons and hip hop? You’d have to know the original movie that was never completed to know the context.
My only regrets about the Guitar Solo (1993) during the FT Live at the Human Experience is that it’s way too short. At least it’s followed up by a performance of Igor. The very fast ascending scales is a quote from Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
Rhapsody Below Zero (2000) is a large-scale through-composed work for solo guitar and big complicated accompaniment. I spent a lot of time on it! The end of the electric guitar part was inspired by the ending of the first movement of the Saint Saens B minor violin concerto. I wish I would have just ended it there and not recap with the acoustic part.
I wrote and recorded Zapateado (2000) as a homage to the Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate, who wrote a work of the same name and same meter. Mine’s nowhere as good, but I still like it. The octave guitar parts are ironically inspired by Liszt.
I can’t even remember where Journal (2005) came from, but it was recorded in one take, was accidentally a bit out of tune, with a hum in the background, but I still liked this recording, so I kept it. Looking at the sheet music, I notice it’s dated 10/27/2002; I had no idea it was so old either. Weird.

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Here’s the guitar tab to the two tunes from “Vision, Dreams, and Nightmares”:

And here’s the music for Journal (some others too from the Relic album):

FT Theme for Firefox

admin — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 01:36:57 +0000

Just for fun, we created a Frozen Taco (old school Frozen Taco, that is) theme for Firefox. Actually, Firefox decided to use the delicate word “persona” instead of theme. Basically, a Firefox persona will replace the boring gray background of your browser with the graphics and design of your choice. They are easy to create and Firefox encourages anyone to create and submit a persona. So we did.

Anyway, here it is for all you zillions of fans out there!

FT’s Five Favorites

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:39:23 +0000

Each of the songlists below contains five tracks selected by the members of FT. These aren’t necessarily the top songs, but they are important to the band members, for one reason or another. Enjoy a sampling of some of our favorites.

Matthew’s:

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These five songs are all special to me for different reasons. Light of Day was a turning point for me, lyrically. It marks the first time I attempted to write a song with no rhyme scheme. I just focused on the meter of the lyric, and I was really pleased with the results.

For Simplicity, I set out to write as few words as possible, while still addressing the theme of the song. It was a fun creative challenge, resulting in a six word verse. To me, it represents the joy of creating music.

Westward Bound is special because it reminds me of my state of mind during the pivotal summer before I traveled West to attend law school in Kansas.

As for Raven & the Dove, it’s always been one of my favorites, particularly because of Theron’s jaw droppingly good instrumentation.

And Life Lines is a notable departure for Frozen Taco – a melodious, leisurely paced tune, one of our longer songs; it establishes and holds a subtle, languid, engaging mood. It’s unique in the FT pantheon of songs. And there you have it – my five picks.

Theron’s:

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After the Visions, Dreams, and Nightmares album, I wanted to depart from the thick orchestrations and long, drawn-out style of songs. Living in the Now, from the Relic album, was an excellent manifestation of this new form. And here’s a little bit of trivia: The guitar part for Living in the Now was originally used in a Hypothetical Seven movie, “The Creature of Potters Pond”.

Benediction is just one of my favorite tunes of all time. The whole song is based on a simple chordal pattern: minor 7th chord, up a minor 3rd to a major chord, up another minor third to a major chord, finally up a major third to a major chord – which appears in various ways all over the song. This song also sports some of my favorite lyrics.

Calm After the Storm is my favorite classic pop-style song by Frozen Taco. I can’t tell you how many times I rewound to listen again to this one.

I have great memories creating the tune for Achille’s Heel. From the powerful intro to the soft Beatles-esque verse, I remember being content with the whole song. Some extreme trivia: The middle section idea was inspired by “Rejoice greatly, o’ daughter of Zion” from Handel’s Messiah.

I’ve always loved The House of Years because of the intricacy in the music. The song is always changing and always interesting.

Dave’s:

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I fell in love with Calm After the Storm when Theron played me the bare instrumental track, before it had any vocals. Then Matt’s lyrics and delivery sealed the deal. Just a solid song all around. It was the high point, for me, of the FT live show years ago. I think on the recording you can hear me over the band, crying out with delight. Awesome.

Magnifikhan that has brought me to tears more than once. The build to the final verse is majestic, and Matt’s lyric throughout captures something without overstating the emotion.

I wish Ingenuous Predator didn’t so exactly sum up what I lost in the falling out Matt and I had all those years ago, but it does. That being said, I think this is the best song the duo has written, period. It floors me every single time.

I have written and spoken often about The Voyage of Karl being the “quintessential” Frozen Taco song. It was a complete collaboration at every step, musically and lyrically. For me, it felt like the first time I added music to the group, and not just notes.

Grey Poupon – Sheer fucking anarchy.

Hits from High School

Stantz — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:18:35 +0000

Here’s a collection of the “popular” sillier songs from our high school days, something for the folks who were at Brookstone at the time. We used to sell Frozen Taco albums for a dollar a piece, and “you supply the tape”. We netted literally tens of dollars using this clever marketing scheme.

Pecans, Cool Guys, Phil’s Army, Chart Me Mendeleev and more – it’s a playlist of our early cardboard dulcimer days, as well as some of our first forays into electronic music.

Note: “Ain’t Talkin’ Precal” ensured that all of us received an “A” in our Discrete Math class. Thank you, Mrs. Purks.

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A Frozen Taco Christmas

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:03:22 +0000

“Go ahead and pout, I’m tellin’ you why: Santa Claus is dead!!”

Merry Christmas to all who read the FT blog and use the FT website. We thought we’d welcome this special time of the year in old-school FT style with one of the old classics of FT. And, we might add, this is Frozen Taco’s only Christmas song, masterfully performed by erstwhile lead singer, Carlos. Aha!

Enjoy!

This from is from The Four Heads of Frozen Taco.

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