Beatnik Turtle's Song of the Day

Since we've written theme songs for tv shows and podcasts, we figured we could use a theme song of our own!

This one was inspired by many of our workplaces, and the game Cube Farm, by Cheapass games. It's the first demo of the song, recorded at the cabin in Wisconsin.

Another version of this song was released on our Cheapass Album, and yet another will be on our live album.

The title says it all on this one.

A Public Service Announcement from Beatnik Turtle: Friends don't let friends get the cooties.

This is the last track from our session with Holmes! when he came into the studio and recorded voice and guitar tracks to several songs, including Lucky Seven, I Got A Reason To Cry, Think On It Some More, Sparks Will Fly, and Vagaries Of Fortune Blues.

Somewhere at night a convertible drives through the California desert with this song playing on the AM radio.

Things have been pretty busy at Beatnik Turtle headquarters the last few weeks getting ready for the release of The Indie Band Survival Guide written by our very own Jason and Randy! We have new Beatnik Turtle songs in the pipeline, but in order to get everything ready for the book's release we decided to present encores of some of the best of last year's songs.

A year ago at this time, Randy, Jason, Ryan, and Tom were at a podcaster party at Dragon*Con. On the balcony, we met Chris Miller (whose podcast can be found here) what he does for a living and the reply was "I turn caffeine into code." Luckily, guitars were close at hand and this song was off to a fast start!

This song is not about any elected official in particular. Ok, well maybe it is...

John Owens might be sick of sandwiches but you'd better not get between him and his coffee!

This song is dedicated to Joe Murphy, a podcaster who was diagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma in late 2006 and succumbed to the disease on April 1, 2007. I didn't know Joe Murphy. But I feel like I've gotten to know him through the song we recorded for his fictional namesake, Mason Rocket, and the connection the Mason Rocket song made to all the close friends Joe was so lucky to have.

In late 2006, I wrote today's instrumental guitar piece and named it "The Longest Day" after the day of the year when the clocks all roll backwards one hour. It always seems as if that day lasts forever and out of all the days in a year, it's my favorite. This song is one of the few Songs of the Day that I spent many weeks practicing before attempting to record it. On April 1 this year, I was practicing this song as usual in the studio during a break when we received word of Joe's passing. After a couple of minutes of silence I started playing the song again at a slower tempo and it just seemed to "fit" the moment. Because it felt such a good fit for the mood at the time, we called it "For Joe" and sent it to Joe's close friend Mur Lafferty together with our condolences. The song, the atmosphere, and the mood all combined to produce a track that truly contained some real emotion.

The song Mason Rocket had already been planned for the next day, and we decided to leave it up for him. We were a bit shocked and saddened that a person who was important in so many people's lives could be taken away so quickly by such an aggressive disease. A few days later, the Joe Murphy Memorial Podcast was released and I was floored when "For Joe" was played throughout the podcast as bookends to various program segments. I got zero work done that morning, that was for certain. I couldn't believe that this little song that I put together was made a part of such a heartfelt tribute by so many individuals to a dear lost friend.

This song has certainly taken on a significantly greater meaning for me than it held when I composed it and it has been a great honor to be a small part of such a fitting tribute to Joe "Mason Rocket" Murphy. So, here is "The Longest Day (For Joe)" plus the original "For Joe" track that we recorded on April 1.

-Tom

To learn more about the aggresive disease Leiomyosarcoma, get to know who Joe Murphy was, and make a donation to Leiomyosarcoma and cancer research, visit www.joemurphymemorialfund.org.