minivan gogh is a project created by Tom Ricker (that’s me), I play guitar, sing, and write all the minivan gogh material. It is basically a demo recorded all in Garage Band (yes that means drum loops). I hope to get in the studio with some other musicians this year to record new material and maybe redo a few of these tracks with a live drummer! 　　 　　Below is my summary of the track list. 　　 　　“Captain America” – This track is built on sort of a grungy sounding groove. The lyrics are inspired by my participation in a series of alter-globalization protests from 2000-2003 – and in particular the response of the police to us. “Freedom is just another word for commodities.” Oleo resin capsicum is pepper spray –in case you’re wondering. 　　 　　“My friend Jennie” – This is just a goof I wrote for a friend –named Shari – who plays bass in a band called My Friend Jennie in D.C. I have a lot of friends who went through art school as well – sort of an ode to that, if anything. 　　 　　`What’s it gonna be” – This song doesn’t really mean anything, I just liked the groove of the guitar and playing with wah-wah pedals. 　　 　　“It’s a dream” – This is my favorite song – but not always the fav among people who listen. It has a cool hook, with loud crunchy guitar. Not exactly Mudhoney, but a distant cousin three or four times removed...maybe. This version is absent a bass hook mostly due to time. [There seems to be a problem with this track (and to a lesser degree track 15) with the preview clip. Something about the way I mastered the tracks interacting with the interface used to create the clips here. Anyway, the previews are not real clear, but are fine on the CD - or at least you can hear them:)] 　　 　　“What the…” this is another spoken word thing. The first bit came from sort of a stream of consciousness I had while watching the Bergman film ‘Wild Strawberries” a few years ago – during my “ART PHASE.” That phase passed, but I liked the words, so strung it with a funky hook and some keyboards. 　　 　　“Simulacra” is just a simple keyboard passage with a guitar layered over it. It sort of reminded me of the music from the film Blade Runner – Philip K Dick is one of my favorite writers so I just picked a different book title for this one (slightly modified). 　　 　　“Neruda Waiting” This is the first song I wrote for my wife, Kim. So I had to include it. The original is all acoustic. I put this one on cuz it seemed to flow with the album better, but I like the acoustic version a lot too. 　　 　　“Ordinary Difference” This is just word play to a grungy sort of hook. 　　 　　“Its for the Children” The lyrics were written ten years ago after Columbine –or after watching the response to Columbine. The music came later. It is one of the heavier tunes on the album. 　　 　　“See it through” - I like this song a lot and it is one I will be redoing in the studio with a full band. This is all guitar –no percussion, but it seemed to work that way so I kept it. Also my wife’s favorite. 　　 　　“Freire” – Another spoken word bit. Paulo Freire is one of my heroes –but this song is more about the relationship between creativity and freedom. Which sounds grandiose I suppose, but also sort of obvious when you think about it… 　　 　　“In my time” - Another grungy tune. This could have been a hit in 1992 with the right singer. 　　 　　“Dance, dance, dance” –this song is just weird. It starts with a funky drop C thing (for those of you into John Mayer he uses this tuning all the time – not that this sounds like him). Then the transition is to a fully Santana derivative kind of jam. No apologies, I love Santana and if the last bit sounds even close, it will make me very happy! The song itself is sort of silly – inspired and named after the Haruki Murakami book. 　　 　　“Benny got home” – this is a song I wrote a few months ago while waiting for my son to arrive! He is here now and I sing this to him all the time. It is a fun song, and hopefully not so in the cheese that makes you blush, or raise an eyebrow, or whatever. 　　 　　“Trash” – This is just loud guitar with some silly lyrics! 　　 　　Okay so this is my album, demo, CD Baby release thing. I hope you enjoy the samples enough to buy one! peace, tom