The songs on "Common Loons" are in a variety of different styles. I wrote some of them as early as 2009, but didn't record most of them until August 2013. All of the songs, with the exception of "One Bag of Tea", were recorded using Band In A Box, a tool that I highly recommend! Songs on the album include: 1. "One Bag of Tea" A spoof of the Tea Party movement, written and recorded in 2010. Musically, this is a cumulative song like "Green Grow the Rushes, Oh" or "12 Days of Christmas". 2. "April Fool" Written April 1, 2010. A short, insincere "love" song. 3. "Nothing That You Say" This baroque-pop number was inspired by my encounters with Flat Earth Society members in Bloomington, MN, and Lyndon LaRouche supporters in Seattle. When I saw the flat earthers, they had a table reserved at a Bakers' Square restaurant with a sign that said "Flat Earth Society: Nothing That You Say Will Convince Us That We're Wrong". Voila! 4. "Parent Trap" A Johnny Cash-style spoken-word country number, inspired by the Smallville episode "Truth" (Season 3), which was in turn based on the true story of Sara Jane Olson. 5. "Amanda" A guy gets a crush on a certain very famous insurance spokeslady, whose name has been changed for copyright reasons. I wanted to do what Paul McCartney & Wings often do and use frequent tempo and style changes. This song has 3 different styles (reggae, ska, and folk-rock) but they all Flo together quite nicely. 6. "42" I wrote this back in 2010; it was partly inspired by Macy Gray (who was 42 at the time), and partly by an experience I had when I met a woman who I thought was about my age but it turned out she was actually much older. 7. "Racist Video Guy" The hardest-rocking song on the album. I wrote this in August 2013 and recorded it very shortly afterward. This is a cautionary tale, and the moral is: think before you post. I wrote it after reading about the band Day Above Ground, who had become (in)famous nearly overnight because of their shockingly offensive "Asian Girlz" video. 8. "Champion's Challenge" A knightly allegory of the American political system. 9. "Tacos at Midnight" Do you love 80s soft-rock power ballads? Think Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" is just awesome? Are you a big fan of Sheriff's "When I'm With You"? Then you'll LOVE "Tacos at Midnight", which not only sounds great, but is delicious, meaty and spicy to boot. I came up with the title after seeing a bag of Late Night Doritos with "Tacos at Midnight" listed as the flavor. 10. "Chicken to the Doctor" Written in 2010, inspired by a famous gaffe made by Nebraska's then-Senate candidate, Sue Lowden. 11. "Allergic to Love" The opposite of Robert Palmer. Let's hope this isn't a real medical condition. 12. "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child 2.0" Written in 2012 while I was taking a nanobiotechnology course. We were discussing ethical implications of new technologies and I immediately got the idea to write a "Brave New World"-type dystopian lyric centered on a genetically engineered, enslaved clone. The most haunting song on the album, this is a 23rd-century re-write of the traditional 19th-century African-American spiritual. 13. "Everybody's Different" This is sort of a Pythonesque spoof of cheesy "It's A Small World"-type tolerance/diversity anthems. The point is that tolerance is a good thing, but it's possible to have too much of it.