The Shure Call for Legends Contest

I've applied for the Shure Call for Legends Contest.

This is my profile: My Profile

And also, this is my first blog post in a long time.

My debut EP

(I've Got) A Long Way to Go EP

Check it out here: Bandcamp Page

It features four songs: Everything She Knew, I'll Be, Happy (a brand new one), and Chained to the Ground (an alternate version of the instrumental I wrote in memory of Elliott Smith).

And also, cover art by Zina Nedelcheva:

And Everything She Knew artwork by my friend Hanna Fazekas

Ilko Birov - Everything She Knew

This is the version without the soaring backing vocals (I jest). A demo of sorts.

Click here, for this is the link to the song on my Soundcloud

I'm leaving home now
Don't know when I'll try to get back
I'm gonna roam now
Might find myself in a year or two

I gotta tell you, that I'm awfully fond of the way
You treat me night and day
I want to show you, that I'm better off on my own
Truly better off on my own

I met some friends here
Really hope they don't pull one on me
'Talk a lot about nature
And how most people should try and be free

I feel like crying, but I'm awfully fond of the way
That you treat me night and day
Just wanted to show you, that I'm better off on my own
Truly better off on my own

na-na naa

I got into some trouble, with the law
I wrote to you, but you still didn't call
So later, when they say I'm ready
I won't feel so adventurous at all

I promise, I promise, I promise

-------------------------------------------------------


(I like the "na-na naa" part best)

Enjoy!

Ilko Birov - Getting To Know One Another

Another simple piano piece.

Soundcloud Link

Cat Power - Lived In Bars (Awesome Live)

My left speaker has been broken for a while now, so I took out the big old headphones yesterday, and listening to this feels great.
The studio version has a really neat guitar lead panned to the left in the second half of the song.

On a less-important note, today was probably the hottest day of summer so far.

A tribute to Elliott Smith

Here it is: Chained to the Ground

I've often felt very inspired by his music and ambiance
and evermore so after listening to this: fantastic Elliott Smith rarities collection

Ilko Birov - Garbage Men

The song.

Garbage Dad
Garbage Son
Almost sundown,
work is done
Along the dumpsters,
one by one
Long forgotten dreams,
Boredom come. 


Like a lonely street.
Long forgotten dreams

My Cover of All I Have to Do Is Dream

Song is here: Recording

Enjoy.

Bob Marley's Redemption Song

my humble cover

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfill the Book.

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.

Redemption Song - Bob Marley

Wouldn't Mama Be Proud

Pretty Boy Floyd

If you'll gather 'round me, children,
A story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.

It was in the town of Shawnee,
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.

There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An' his wife she overheard.

Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.

Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.

But a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.

Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.

It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:

Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
You say that I'm a thief.
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.

Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

Ilko Birov - All of Yesterday's Worries (on Tomorrow's Table)

To the song

Enjoy.

(photo of this beautiful Vancouver skyline taken by my friend Niki Shirazian) 

My "Intro 5"

The Thing

Yes, there are four more.
Enjoy

Why

Why

Why can't you try to be happy?
Why must you always be sad?
Why spend your only life waiting
to have what you know you can have?
Why spend your only life hoping?
What a torture to be always blue, darling


Why spend your only life waiting
to do what you know you can do?


What's the worst thing that could possibly happen
to you?


Mmm


Why spend your only life hopin',
What a torture to be always blue, darlin'


Why spend your only life waiting
To do what you know you can do?
Why spend your only life waiting
To do what you know you can do?


Ooh

- Josh Ritter


From the forthcoming EP "Bringing In The Darlings", available on February 21.

Marilyn Manson & The Spooky Kids - After School Special (Demo)

Apparently this was the fourth cassette the band were to sell publicly. Recorded and released in December of 1991.

The cover features a photograph of a young Jeffrey Dahmer.

1. Negative Three

I think this is a really good example of what MM & The Spooky Kids were all about, albeit being straightforward and having no special effects (like voice samples and all that). And it's strange because this reminds me of Warner's later work (circa Eat Me, Drink Me). I hope you enjoy listening this song as much as I do. His voice sounds really good here.

Give me your blood, your tears
Your high school pictures
Your words can't begin to
Satisfy my needs

Give me your hand I'll never
Give you flowers
Your touch can't begin to
Satisfy my...

I can't save you from me this time
You can't save you
Nothing comes between you and I

Don't know what you see
In my negativity
I know, you know 
It's one part you three parts me, yeah
Don't know what you see
In my negativity
I know, you know
Three parts me

Show me your scars
Show me your broken mirrors
Your dreams can't begin to
Satisfy my...
 
I can't save you from me this time
You can't hide from me
Can't hide what's inside
In your mind

Don't know what you see
In my negativity
I know, you know
It's one part you three parts me, yeah
 
Don't know what you see
In my negativity
I know, you know
Three parts me

Don't know what you see
In my negativity
I know, you know
It's one part you three parts me, yeah

Don't know what you see
In my negativity
I know, you know
It's one part you three parts me, yeah

Don't know what you see
In my negativity
Always has and always will be
Three parts me...
Three parts me...

2. Lunchbox

This is the first demo of Lunchbox, a later version (they changed the intro and the chorus entirely [making them much better, in this blogger's opinion]) of which would appear on Portrait of an American Family.

I could not get around embedding the song, so click on this link to hear it in a a song-sharing website

Why don't you eat these!
Shut up! I'm making my lunch!
Shut up! I'm making my lunch!
Bring you down
I'm making my lunch!
I'm making my lunch!
On we plow

The big bully try to stick his finger in my chest
Try to tell me tell me he's the best
But I don't really give a good god damn cause
I got my lunchbox and I'm armed real well now
Now, I got my lunchbox and I'm armed real well now
Now, I got the on we plow!

On we plow
On we plow
 
Some day, I wanna grow up to be
A big time rock and roll star
So no one fucks with me, yeah

Shut up! I'm making my lunch! I'm making my lunch!

I got the pencils in my pocket try to put me down 
Want to go out gotta get down
To the playground gonna throw down at the playground
I wanna go out

Next motherfucker gonna get my metal
Next motherfucker gonna get my metal
Next motherfucker gonna get my metal
Next motherfucker
 
Pow pow pow
Pow pow pow
Pow pow pow
Pow pow pow

Some day, I wanna grow up to be
A big time rock and roll star
So no one fucks with me, yeah
Some day, I wanna grow up to be
A big time rock and roll star
So no one fucks with me
Some day, I wanna grow up to be
A big time rock and roll star
So no one fucks with me, yeah


3. Choklit Factory

This references Dahmer's (the notorious Milwaukee serial killer) working at Ambrosia Chocolate Factory and his monstrous murders. And it's a psychedelic horror-film type of song; sends chills down my spine as I listen and read the lyrics.
The samples in the song are from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

There was strange was a man there, I think he was the Tinker
He was standing right behind me looking up at the factory
Just before he left he said
"Nobody every goes in, and nobody every comes out"

Where's the choklit? Where's the choklit? Where's the choklit?
 

One boy entertained by
The torments of another soul
Touching was confusing
And he found he was all alone

He sought salvation
In the darkness of the choklit
Sweets soaked insecurities
And sugar teased his need to kill
 
Peel back, the faces
We hide within our choklit shell
Some know indulgence
Some know and some go much too far

Where's the-where's the choklit?
They came hypnotized by
The promise in his somber grin
He saw s-s-s-something
In the weakness of their skin
 
Peel back, the faces
We hide within our choklit shell
Some know indulgence
Some know and some go much too far
 
Little suprises around every corner but nothing too dangerous
Is it raining is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a blowing?
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of hell a glowing?
Is the grizzly reaper mowing?
Yes the danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
Not showing signs of slowing
Any sign that they are slowing
Faster faster faster faster
Faster faster faster faster
Faster faster faster faster
Faster faster faster faster

Jeff saved for later
His prizes of iniquity
Polaroids to covet
And bones to hide in 213
 
Peel back, the faces
We hide within our choklit shell
Some know indulgence
Some know and some go...

4. Cyclops

A later version of Cyclops also appeared on Marilyn Manson's debut full-length album, Portrait of an American Family.
I think this version is much stronger though, as the vocals sound really sinister, yet unstable, and it's all basically a dark, raw and eerie nightmare.
And Berkowitz's guitar really comes out into the foreground here. I've always liked his style.





We are all evil inside
We are all evil inside

Cyclops woman got one eye in her head
Mascera-clotted vision she is fed
Cyclops woman can't see nothing at all
She got a pin-prick spiral hole

We are all We are all evil inside

She can't see nothing, nothing at all
She can't see nothing, nothing at all

Cyclops woman dying in her shell
Guilt got her trapped in nailed in well
Cyclops woman is the eye of the world
Who's reflection's in the re-ti-na?

She paints her eyes blackest of all
She paints her eyes blackest of all
 
Dialate
Dialate

We are all evil inside
We are all evil inside
We are all evil inside
We are all evil inside

I noticed all their demo tapes had strange stuff written in the credits
The After School Special liner notes end thusly:

ADDITIONAL PRAISE GO TO THE FOLLOWING FOR
INSPIRATION AND OR GUIDANCE.
dr. suess
willy wonka
little richard (the night stalker)
william s. burroughs
samie youth
jeff dalmer
scooby doo
charles manson 

Top 5 R.E.M. for Feb 24

5. Radio Free Europe




4. The One I Love




3. Drive




2. Nightswimming




1. Imitation of Life

Ilko Birov - I Want You

the I Want You song

I want you
baby, I want you for good
I may not know what that entails
But I'll figure it out, and if that's all I ever do
I'll do it

I want you
darling, I want you and it hurts
If I don't live for the moment, why am I really here?
Anyway..
You know? Just to try and find the words
To say

 I've been alone, got pushed around, have no intention
 of letting your  heart down, like the droplets of water
 on your windshield

 Went to the bridge, that lion's gate. Saw everything
 flash behind these eyes , was so surprised.
 Then I realized

I need you
dearest friend, I need you and I can't let go
It's every time I turn, every crowded space
Just your face I see
My heart belongs to something
that isn't there
'Cause my heart belongs to something that just
isn't there.

Dr Uke

Massive guitar and uke chords database

Check it out, for it is quite nice.

A tase of Syl Johnson

Sunshine in a Card

Hanna's Blog