So this is what I got for February. Play Dead started life as a three chord riff written around a drum pattern. It ended up a bit of a mess. Instrumentally it's fine, though some of the changes are weak, but the melody and lyric were tacked on at the end and it shows. Absolute nonsense and a hackneyed verse. If I could do it all over again, I'd do it better. I have no intention of doing it all over again. We're stuck with it until March.

Though the shame of missing December's deadline for posting a song has hung heavy over us since the new year arrived, we've managed to poke our heads from 'neath our darkened veils long enough to pose a musical question. Namely, How Can You Hate a Song?

It's a dangerous query for a band to put forth, esecially since some Oxford tunes have been known to get under people's skin. Or would, if anyone ever heard them. But we will not wilt in the face of controversy, and insist on pondering this question, one that occured while shopping at Lowe's as one of our least favorite George Harrison songs played overhead. Thanks, George (lousy hippy).

I don't feel like discussing any of the technical details of this song, but I will say that I definitely need to vary the types of guitar tone I'm using. Four guitars all using the same settings can start to get a little muddy. Enjoy the air raid siren solo courtesy of AirRaidSirens.com. In fact, enjoy the whole thing, and we'll see you in February.

Clearly, I will not make my December deadline, sorry

Hey everyone. Even with all the shite that's been going on, we've managed to eke out a song for November, and not some moldy oldie that's been laying around for months or years. No, Big Boy Money is freshly composed and hastily recorded, still hot from the oven. The haste is apparent in the haphazard keyboards and backing vocals, but hopefully they're all buried deep enough that they just merge into the frentic whole. This is my official lament for having to work a real job, but it's also a gesture of defiance, basically saying that the Oxford Boys will not be cowed by a demanding job into setting aside our priorities. Songs come first, then work, charity, and selflessness. It's only fitting that I turned down an offer of overtime and spent my Saturday recording this - you'll never change me!

I admit to being redundant when it comes to the structure of my songs. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus every time, but it's primarily a result of the rush to get these recorded, and the fact that I can only do vocals when the house is empty. I'll try to work on that. One trend this song has bucked is the tendency to wrap everything up in under three minutes. Somehow this one ended up running over four minutes, which is almost unheard of for us.

Anyway, hope you like the song and we'll meet again next month.

It's October and the Oxford Boys would like you to say hello to The Ombudsman. This latest tune is rather silly, and the production is a bit of a mess, but it passes muster with the board at Oxford HQ, and so it is our tune for this haunted month. Hopefully the lyrics are peppered with enough stealthy double entendres for you to guess the actual identity of the title character, but it's not crucial. On a technical note, the song does feature the first beat programmed using the FruityLoops software. On a more shameful note, I have already broken my solemn vow to stop using scratch tracks in the final mix - all three acoustic tracks here were intended for oblivion, only to survive the entire recording process.

There's been plenty of raw material from which to draw new music, so I have no excuse for not producing at least two or three more hits before this challenging year is out. We'll see. Enjoy yourself, and we'll see you in November.

Because I have nothing better to do, I've posted a quick tune with the unfortunate name of Titled Wave. Last time I tried working on this was around the time of the Asian tsunami, now it coincides with Hurricane Katrina. My songs don't have the power of life and death, so I'm risking only my reputation for timid inoffensiveness by posting it at such a sensitive time. It's pretty bare-bones, two tracks of Casio (three if you count that awesome drum track) and some vocals. That's enough though, it's done. We remain unburdened by perfectionism.

I wasn't really planning on this counting as my official song for September, but we'll see how the month plays out. Either way, hope you like it.

Hey everybody, it's late August and that means I'm overdue for a song. Before & After is that song and I hope you like it. The punishing summer heat, various personal crises and a self-imposed abstinence from mind-altering substances all contributed to the slow pace of recording this month, but we've managed to squeeze one out. The King of Plop.

Some delicate mixing was required to balance the over-abundance of tracks, and though there are no standout moments in the arrangement, it holds together well. The disturbing tendency to begin recording a song before it's completely written continues; this tune contains yet another bridge that was composed at the last minute and lyrics that quickly taper off after the second verse. Still, I'm satisfied, and it's time to look toward the next offering.

Hope you are well. Civilization - frayed and stressed - has survived another month. May it do so again and again and again and...

Into a disturbed and troubled world we release The World Outside, our tune for July. In addition to the duty we all have to remain sane in this malignant era, the Oxford Boys also accept the burden of writing and releasing nice pop songs while hell rages all around. It is our attempt at stregthening civilizations' bulwark against intolerance and ignorance, or something like that.

Anyway, the tune turned out alright, vocals are okay and are taking up more and more tracks each time. There are also many guitar tracks (including two solos) and the welcome return of the ancient Korg Poly-800 synthesizer. Soon I will seriously try to buy a better bass, hopefully eliminating that damn buzz from these otherwise pristine tracks for good.

Hope you like it, and I will see you in August.

Hey everybody. Well, another month, another attempt at an Oxford Boy classic. Once again, this month's entry features lyrics by Judy Puckett who is quickly becoming Bernie Taupin to my Elton John. The song is called When Love Disappears and it is posted at 15 Megs of Fame, a new site that offers the titular amount of space to struggling musicians - space for which I am very grateful.

Now, about the song: It's based on that old standby beat, the dreaded 12/8 (AKA 'slow blooze'), infamous for buttressing scores of endless, formless guitar solos back in the heydey of Classic Rock. All in all it turned out well and you may notice that I seem to have licked the latency problem that was plaguing the last few tunes. Thankfully a download of some updated drivers did the trick, sparing us the cost of a new, fancy sound card - although I was secretly looking forward to the purchase of some shiny new gear.

I've also posted some older tunes at the site though you'll be glad to know I'm not counting them against my 'one song a month/twelve songs a year' promise, they're just some old laundry I felt like airing out. Hope you like the material and I'll see you soon.

Let the recovery begin with I'm Yours. It's a decent, if slight, tune but what's important is that in recording it I've discovered a procedural problem that can now be remedied.

I'm sure you've noticed the general sloppiness of the two or three previous songs. Turns out I'm not losing the magic, I just have a bum sound card. Hence tracks were not synching up properly with other tracks and the result was mush. Though a solution has yet to be fully implemented, the workaround has and recordings should improve, at least on the technical end.

The drum loop is from some guys site (can't rcall it though) and I was determined to use it, 'cause it's cool. This is the second tune using it, the first having been discarded upon completion due to its' crappiness, hopefully this one is worthier.