I've taken on some insane projects, many of which require a very special kind of madness to accomplish, but this has to be one of the dumbest ideas I've ever had.

Write and record a different song every day.

I guess it's really an effort to improve my songwriting, or perhaps it's more likely an attempt to drive myself to an early grave. Will there be a new song every single day? Probably not. That's super-insane in a way that even I'd be unlikely to behave.

-- But I'll give it a try.

Chances are it will become song of the week, and then song of the month, and then ... who knows? When you think about it, does 365 songs a year really sound unreasonable? They don't all have to be winners, or even particuarly listenable.

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UPDATE: Monday, August 29, 2005.

It's finally happened.

We all knew the day would come, but as a result of the many demands on my time, song of the day must now become song of the week. I got 140 days done without missing a single day (even during the two weeks I was away from my computer, or the few times I was actually on the road and had to beg, borrow, and ... um ... really borrow, a net connection).

It may be that I can get more than one song done per week, so it could end up being "songs of the week," and who knows, perhaps I'll still get seven done per week on average, but I can't promise anything.

Here, have a cookie...

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Flying Saint Bernard

It Was Hot

Chinchilla Love

Velcrodog

Taste This ... What Is It?

Special Halibut

Undercova Chinchilla

Mental Dental Rentals

You May Already Have Won

Zipperfly

I Want To Get Ahead

Edible Pants

Attack Of The Newfies From England

Battle Toque

Lonely Toe

The Happy Little Zombie

I Can't Make Me

The Dalai Lama Is A Free Lunch

Evidence Of Insanity

Master Of Dark Magic

Flaming Squirrel Bombs

Let's Get The Monkeys Drunk...

The Royal Mail

A New Species

Remote Poultry Manipulation Device

Plant Ambulance

You're Probably Wondering Why My Pants Are Wiggling.

Rabbits, We Won.

Robot Camel Jockeys

Dont Answer It. It's The Bear.

They Never Suspect The Badger

Chupacobra (The Chicken Sucker)

Haunted Cupcake

Reaction

Half Eaten

Shi Wo Lemmo

The Monster In The Mote In The Eye Of The Storm

Bug Fogger

Feed My Dog

Happy Death

Strange Resonance

Making Love To Your Mom

Charming Snake

Where The Sun Will Never Shine

The Swiss Marshmallow Picking Song

Stick A Flashlight Up Your Nose

Xeno Evil

Lightning Stan

Bad Ear Day

Mauve and Dangerous

Sheepalanche

Charlie Don't Surf

On The Composition Of Coffee

Rome Is Burning

Don't Give Up On Your Dreams

Smack The Cat

That's Not Blood

I Feel Lucky

Everything Old

Stranded Lady

The Killa Chinchilla

Five Minutes Into The Future

Vampirezan

Hybrid Car

Poke Me With The Stick

Khahki Lakhi Hooga Looga (The Tiki Sock Song)

The Mosquito of Damocles

Close Enough For Vegan

The Best Olympics Ever

Stupid Is Everywhere

World Record For Sale

The Poker Player

I. Am. Robot.

Jelly Roll

The Evil Piano

I'm Not As Think As I Smart I Am

Hollandaise

The Explorer

If God Were Real

Children's Singer

Laid Back

Before I Forget

Jumped The Shark

The Berzerker

Science is Easy

The Worst Castrato

Blood, Sweat, and Tea

One Note

Where Did That Thing Go?

iune

It's Awfully Weird in Here

Buy Your Love on eBay

Chocolate Chip Nookie

SARS

The Tambourine of Unnatural Sciences

Isn't it Grand?

Robot Sex

The Revenging Trio

Tuesdays

The Question

On The Road

Nappy Hair

Kazoo Poorly For Your Love

Maglite

Three Bottle Strichinine

Magic Bean

Don't Forget Your Hat

Satanic Panic

Sorry About That Last Song

Friendly Bacterium

Cheap Synthesizer Beats

The Power of the Cape

I Am A Bullshit Artist

Poor For A Living

Easily Satisfied

This Is Not A Code

Phone Tag

Why Are There No Songs About Writing Songs?

I Know So Much More Than You.

The Mystery Meat.

There's A Monkey In My Bathroom.

Death Phallus.

Once A Year.

Exploding Toads of Hamburg.

Waiting For The Tiger.

A Backwards Song.

Multikickity.

I Blame The Parents.

Humma Numma Num.

Great Personality People.

Two Heads Are Better Than One.

Garden Party.

Clubbing Seals.

My Neighbor Got A Motorcycle.

The Ballad of Penn and Teller.

Keep A Song In Your Heart.

Wilhelm We Miss You.

Psychic Man.

Best Before Yesterday.

The Universe is Collapsing.

I Don't Want to be a Dreamer.

There are some "rules" I've been following so far (except where it's been convenient to ignore them).

• Every song regardless of how lame has in some way been an effort to hone part of the songwriting/recording/production process. So while the singing might be even worse than usual I may have been in a mood to work on creating a specific drum sound that day.
• Every song is a "song" proper, not spoken, not freeform. It must have structure, and it must have a melody. This isn't art -- it's craft.
• There is to be no explanation. I have been tempted to add a blurb for each song, explaining it. Isn't the point of a song to communicate something? If it can't speak for itself, then it's not a very good song. Some do contain obscure references, or just plain don't adequately explain themselves. This ain't a blog, it's song of the day.
• "Good enough for song of the day." Every song is done (whether or not I want it to be) the moment I start obsessing too much over details. If I ever start spending too much time on something then immediately it is declared "good enough for song of the day." Perfection is not the goal.
• No serious songs. It must be fun. Be serious about weird -- but don't be trite.
• No politics. It's far too easy to make fun of politics.
• No current events. The songs should be timeless.
• No "changing the words" to an existing song. Alluding to styles of music or other songs is acceptable, but all material must be original. Putting your own words to a song isn't songwriting, it's a cop out.
• No repeating of styles/instrumentation/tempo across any two songs which are next to each other chronologically. As much difference as possible.
• No backing up the tracks. Each song is recorded, mixed, and then the original files are erased. No "keeping them for later," no remixes. They should be fleeting and transient. I may redo some of the better songs at a later date, but each recording is a one time deal and everything but the mp3 is deleted after they are put up here.

So those are pretty much the rules I'm following. Some songs undoubtedly violate them, in fact I've broken almost every one of them at some point, but hey -- it's song of the day!