S1E6: Oh No, The Bird

Happy New Year! On our 6th episode of Jam Mechanics, we go down memory lane (way, WAY down memory lane). Get your new Calendars pinned up and mark "Jam Mechanics" for every other Monday.
Jam Mechanics is a podcast hosted by Matt (The Narcissist Cookbook) and Bug (Bug Hunter) where we challenge each other to write a song demo from scratch every episode.
If you'd like downloadable files for this episode (and the demos we showed off), ⁠⁠you can go to our
Bandcamp: jammechanics.bandcamp.com/⁠⁠⁠
website: www.jammechanics.com/
to pay-what-you-want to support us!
Our Music:⁠⁠
The Narcissist Cookbook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: open.spotify.com/artist/39XOE...
Bug Hunter⁠⁠: open.spotify.com/artist/3icuK...
Feel free to reach out to us at:
Both: [e-mail]
Bug: [e-mail]
Matt: [e-mail]
and follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, KZbin, and Spotify! Please share the show (and our music) with friends!
-- SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE BELOW --
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BUG'S SONG
Matt's Challenge: Your First Memory
Title: Memories
Lyrics:
There were roses in the garden
My toys were on the lawn
My brother rode a bicycle
Watched closely by my mom
I toddled off the patio
I often wandered off
And quickly get corralled by
My sweetheart of a dog
These are the details
These are the memories
These are the moments always cut from documentaries
These are the details
These are the memories
That never stick
I was just a baby in the backyard
Learning one thing at a time
The shapes and colors turning
Into object ‘fore my eyes
It was an early autumn evening
The first I could recall
I crunch the leaves beneath my feet
My dad records it all
These are the details
These are the memories
These are the moments always cut from documentaries
These are the details
These are the memories
That never stick
They called me in for dinner but
Before I headed in
They handed me a cup of kibble
Filled up to the brim
I toddled to the doghouse
Thats when God, she hit record
My first memory is getting all my shit rocked by a bird
Can’t choose the details
Can’t choose the memories
Can’t choose the scars they leave so sudden, unexpectedly
Can’t choose the details
Can’t choose the memories
I wish we weren’t so primed to focus on upsetting things
Can’t choose the details
Can’t choose the memories
That seem to nest inside your head
The awful details
That form these memories
But if I could instead
I’d choose the details
The little memories
And make ‘em stick
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MATT'S SONG
Bug's Challenge: "Calendar"
Title: The Year of Confusion
Lyrics:
See Comment!

[@friedhegg1994]

I played Not Like That on guitar for my teacher a little while back and he kept requesting it all the time after that. It's perfect. It's one of my favorite songs

[@dadinside8739]

Apple is one of my favorite songs period. I refuse to accept apple slander

[@tinyq555]

bugs song memories 11:40 the year of confusion 21:37

[@DeepBlueInk]

Two absolute bangers. Both in my top 5 tracks for the podcast so far I think.

[@JamMechanics]

Definitely top 6 for each, ya??

[@DeepBlueInk]

@@JamMechanics At LEAST

[@JamMechanics]

Lyrics for Matt's song (couldn't fit the whole thing in the description): In 46 BC, although they didn’t call it 46 BC of course, the Roman Empire experienced what came to be known as the Year Of Confusion. Up until then, people understood a year to be 12 months long like we do. And honestly, their calendar looked a lot like ours. Months had either 29 or 31 days except February, which in order to keep the calendar aligned with the natural lunar year, could have anywhere between 23 or 28 days. But that flexibility alone was not enough to keep the calendar aligned with the Earth’s seasons. And so every few years to make sure things didn’t get too out of whack, the Romans would have not a leap day but an entire leap month called Mercedinus, or Intercalaris, which generally fell at the end of February. And to be decided by a religious leader. The keeper of God’s time. This wasn’t why they called 46 BC the Year Of Confusion. The problem with having these leap months and having them be inserted at the will of religious leaders, is that they would often decide a year would be 22 days longer when a supporter (or they themselves) were in political office. Giving them another 3 weeks of rule, or at the very least political influence. Or he would decide against including a leap month when one was desperately needed in order for the calendar to make any kind of sense when an opponent was in office. Because that would get them out the door quicker. And thus the years, time itself, was beholden to political whim and corruption. But even this is not the reason why 46 BC was called the Year of Confusion. No, the reason 46 BC was known as the Year Of Confusion is because that was the year that Julius Caesar said “enough is enough”. No more bending the calendar to your will, from now on the calendar will align with the lunar year naturally, without human intervention. And so the Julian calendar, effectively the calendar that we use today, was introduced. Except, not quite. Because in order for the Julian calendar to align with the start of the lunar year, 46 BC was 445 days long. One last blast of nonsense powerful enough to, they hoped, wash the old away with the new. And then from 45 BC, the years progressed much as we recognize, with the occasional leap day to make up for minute slippage. All this effort, to align the calendar of man with the mysterious lunar mechanism, which seemed at the time to hold everything together with a level of perfection that mankind was incapable of recreating on Earth. Which our attempts to capture had led only to the already powerful hoarding evermore unfathomable power. That’s the strange thing about time, it’s not real. Not how we experience it anyway, our scientific knowledge today makes even the smartest of those in ancient Rome look like children. And yet our years are still built around how fast this little ball is flung around its closest star. I guess it’s difficult to remember that when a day isn’t a collection of hours anymore, but of minutes and seconds. Our lives are being broken down into ever smaller increments. So small that we have lost sight of when a day truly begins and ends. Yeah, maybe we don’t gain or lose an entire month anymore due to the political machine, but there are huge swathes of the world’s population who barely see sunlight for 3 months out of the year, rising as it does before they clock in and setting before they clock out. Is this natural? It feels natural. But I think it’s difficult to truly understand a system when you are inside it. 46 BC, the Year Of Confusion, must have felt for some like a year of realization. That the relationship between our time and God’s time is not 1 to 1. That there are 93 million miles between the human race and the sun. And that our moments are best measured by the turning of the leaves, by the freezes and the thaws. By the people who come into our lives too late and fall out of our lives too soon. Everything moving, always. But as a rule, as a kindness, too slow for us to notice

[@LlyricDragon]

Matt's song made me cry a little

[@nixeso]

Such a strong start to 2024 👊 The second Matt got the prompt ‘Calendar’ I KNEW we’d get a story that started with some far back date LOL

[@OttoRain_95]

I love songs that are just History with Matt 😂❤

[@nbcdy4327]

I spent so much of last year listening to apple on repeat. My favourite narcissist cookbook track

[@NickNackNyx]

same!!! insane to me that allen didn't like it

[@valeriepickard3765]

Adorable outro! Thanks for ringing in the new year!

[@loveletterz]

I know you all said those some of the songs are not fit for your bands, and some wont even be fully finished. But all of these songs get such a great meaning and character because of the podcast. I know the show is still fairly new, but damn how i wish there is going to be a Jam Mechanics world tour. I think the vibe of those shows would be the cozies and cool thing ever.

[@TimjanThyme]

God, i enjoy these so much, you’re both absolutely incredible and this episode unlocked new feelings for me I didn’t know existed so thanks

[@GenericSweetener]

I’m not listening on New Year’s because I’ve started saving these episodes for hard days, and this episode is a reminder of why that is a good practice, I can’t wipe the smile off my face. I’m going to have to come back and write a paragraph or two on how absolutely wonderful this was.

[@jonnyspade]

Loving it, i'm thinking about doing some of these challenges just for fun!

[@irisavontoc1068]

Getting to this super late- My life has been insane since the last episode I am super hype about this!! Thank you both for being great as you are ❤️ Edit: My first memory is also 'getting my shit rocked by a bird'! I walked into my at the time grandmother's living room and was attacked be her very aggressive parrot. I have scars on my face from it and a genuine fear of birds I can only chalk up to that lol. Matts song is also so good, an amazing slow and chill song and history lesson! Thank you guys again and Happy New Year!! 🎉

[@KitCabaret]

Incidentally, I did end up pausing the episode right before the break to write a song about one of the prompts - I ended up having to pause on hour two of three cuz of technical difficulties, but if you do end up making that fated Jam Mechanics Discord, I'd love to share the results in there once I get those sorted out!

[@irisavontoc1068]

There is already a Jam Mechanics discord! If you are in either Bug's or Matt's discords they share links to it I believe with every new episode release. If not you just might need to scroll up a bit and find one.