Television I Don't Need Your Loving Anymore

My Sound Cloud Music Portal

Here are my latest songs on SoundCloud.
http://soundcloud.com/russvr

Newer original songs include: Sumer, Moon Pull, Concerto in E minor for 6 Guitars, Crazy Sane, Inside Somewhere, but not Here. Older originals include: Variations, Flowers, If Transcendence Were Possible and So Pretty.

Newer covers include: Hurry on Sundown ( Hawkwind ), Plastic Factory (Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band ), Same Old Man ( Karen Dalton ) ,Shake Some Action ( The Flamin' Groovies), Willy O' Winsbury (traditional ), and John Barleycorn Must Die (traditional via Traffic ). Watch this space , I will have more covers to come of trad and folk-rock, as well as some new originals.

All Songs by Russ Van Rooy unless otherwise noted. All instruments and vocals: Russ Van Rooy unless otherwise noted.  (C) 2011

Goth Picnic

Here is an instrumental "country punk" song called Goth Picnic. Inspired by an actual scene - I was in San Francisco and my friend and I were driving through Golden Gate Park and at one of the grassy areas were a gathering of black dressed Goths engaged in barbecuing and Frisbee throwing.  On this track is Rob McBroom on double bass.

Paruresis

Holding. Clinching the Universe into my abdomen like I was a god.

But I'm less than a man.

Holding it in for twelve or maybe sixteen hours. No pain at this point,

Just deadness.

Maybe I'll go there, or there, or there. 

No bother,

Because I'm transparent. Everyone knows. My thoughts 

can be heard for miles.

I guess I'll go home and never leave.

Stillness with Noise Buzzing all Around

[Asleep,prologue]

Stillness with noise buzzing all around,

Serious flatness,a bird eating a grasshopper,

Days and nights and days, no end, no beginning,

No time.

No space.

No reason, no answer.

[Now I'm awake but in a dream]

We're at opposite ends of the couch and

I'm hoping we can still stay in touch.

Did this year really happen?

Or did time stop for everyone except me.

Because I keep applying the brakes -

All I get is skidding.

Down a slope, with nothing to hold

I seek distraction with structure & pattern

But find nothing to concentrate upon.

Just repeats of

over played songs.

Spring is coming. Change is coming.

But I wouldn't rely too heavily

upon geographic solutions.

The Voyeur

A voyeur crouches
in the brush behind my house
occasionally snapping branches
signaling his presence.

I walk outside
and hear the buzz of crickets and insects
in the afternoon heat
and I realize how far I am from my origins.

This spirit does not have the decency to 
wait until night while I'm asleep to
do its haunting.

Non Conformist

All my life, I have encountered situations where I was unable to abide by baroque procedures and processes. I always chaffed at uneccessary hoops to jump through and when told that my attempts to conform were not good enough, I always felt that I was lacking in intelligence or drive or both. I know now though that it is not me that is inadequate or wrong. It is the useless and outdated bureacratic, inefficient, officious, mindset that often is promoted to it's mediocre, idiocratic maxima, that is the problem. This is the lesson consulting is teaching me.

blind alleys

On the platform, waiting for the el, pondering, not being,
present,
ruminating,
thinking
down old roads
and 
blind alleys.

Another Poem about how Work Sucks Away your Soul

The purple line pulls into Merchandise Mart station. The door opens and 
we struggle out onto the platform like diminutive little mammals, 
or more like a flood of uncountable red & white corpuscles, unstoppable, mindless. 


Each of us , so small a part we play, how unimportant each one of us alone. 
Something tiny controls this repeating scene but it runs through each of us, a connecting spark, the will to survive. 


Tiny flakes of snow spit randomly as I cross the frozen but oily looking Chicago River. 
I stand at Wells and Wacker and surrender.

Genesis Hall covered by Russ

Here is my cover of the Richard Thompson penned song from The Fairport Convention's 1969 record, Unhalfbricking, "Genesis Hall" , recorded in April of this year.

In imitation of Neil Young Zuma era

Update: New mix. Turned down two tracks: electric slide guitar and bass strings. Faded out parts of the rhythm guitar in places where it's off. Faded out unnecessary feedback.

Another new recording - a work in progress because I'm sure I will tweak this one.

I call it "Danger Neil" as it is in the style of Neil Young from his 'Zuma' album - pretty much a rif on "Danger Bird" .

New Music. This blog has been ignored for too long and now I have a considerable amount of original music to share.

Here is a new one, "Trust".

This is a picture of Santa at the Heidelberg Project, in Detroit, Michigan. The curator of this art is Tim Burke.