Zabada (the Album!)

This is my record that I whipped out in February 2007 as a part of RPM Challenge. It is nothing! It is everything! It is Zabada! It is by Rob Lambert.

You can listen and download the whole thing here: Zabada at Virb

If you know me personally, email me or phone me and I’ll get you a no-cost hand-rolled copy just for you!

Information

All songs written, performed and recorded by Rob Lambert.

Special guests:
Mary Anne: piano on “Price I Pay” and djembe/shakers on “Oshkosh”
Yolanda Rios: words and voice on “Aye Dios Rios”

The Songs

The songs are listed below. You can listen to any of the tracks by clicking on the song titles and then clicking the PLAY button next to the “Listen here:” label. Enjoy!

Zabada (the Album!)

This is my record that I whipped out in February 2007 as a part of RPM Challenge. It is nothing! It is everything! It is Zabada! It is by Rob Lambert. You can listen and download the whole thing here: Zabada at Virb If you know me personally, email me or phone me and I'll get you a no-cost hand-rolled copy just for you!

Zabada

Zabada is a word that I made up a long time ago. It means nothing and everything. I literally picked up my acoustic guitar one day and strummed a four-chord progression in a 3/4 time signature and sang the lyrics of the first verse without thinking about it. I sat down and wrote a second verse in the same spirit of the first verse.

Price I Pay

Here's the idea: a guy takes the nine volt batteries out of his smoke detectors to power his guitar pedals and effects. His house burns down. The fire would've probably been prevented, had the smoke detectors had batteries in them. But our humble hero does not have a concern over losing his abode, as soon he thinks he'll be a huge rock star and will be able to buy many many fancy houses to replace his current home.

Fun Bite II

This song is mostly an instrumental. It organically grew out of noodling around one evening. The title refers to play fighting with my Siberian Husky, Hampton.

Not Unhappy Blues

Song about being unhappy about being happy. Or at least disappointed for not having the blues. You know, it's about being uninspired to be creative because everything is perfectly fine.

Aye Dios Rios

Originally this was an instrumental called "Desplando". Then I spliced together a bunch of voicemail snippets from Rios over the years to liven this little ditty up. It's funny that the theme of this turned into "get out of bed" and "help me fix my computer". That about sums it all up.

Bulletproof Shoes

Absolutely absurd story about a man's quest to find a pair of bulletproof shoes.

Oshkosh

Instrumental little ditty that is named for the nice street that we live on. Also, the computer that recorded most of these tunes is named OSHKOSH (also named after the street!)

Jeff Tweedy Turd

If you don't know, Jeff Tweedy is the main guy in the band Wilco. I love Wilco. I really do. Especially their last three studio albums. But some people worship Jeff Tweedy like he is a god. I am poking fun at these folks. Jeff has played several solo shows at Marytr's in Chicago over the years, making my fictional purloinment of said fecal matter a little more believable.

Garbage Can

This is a very very deep song about a scenario where the garbage man doesn't haul away a garbage can that is "trash" itself, because, how is he supposed to know that the garbage can is garbage unless you label it so? Oh man, I crack myself up.

Letter from Pablo

Written from the perspective of my dear, always at my side, canine buddy Pablo...

Hypochondriac (Hey Doctor)

A man goes to doctor with everyday occurrence "symptoms" and wonders if he is going to die.

I Don’t Know

Meloncholy simple little ditty. These lyrics were originally filler that I was going to replace, but they kind of took on their own life after repeated listenings, so I left them. The "I Won't Know Why" concept is actually kind of meaningful to me. There is a huge relief once you let go of the search for getting definitive answers to the big questions. Kind of like the Dement Iris song "Let the Mystery Be". There's a nice version of "Let the Mystery Be" by 10,000 Maniacs and David Byrne on this CD.

Starck

I wrote this instrumental on our piano that we got from Mary's mom, Rita. The brand of the piano is Starck, and thus, the title of this little ditty.

Not Unhappy Blues (Reprise)

A reprise of Not Unhappy Blues! Still unhappy about being not being unhappy.

Bored

Wishing I was bored so maybe I'd force myself to go do something creative and not later regret that the day was wasted. I remember being bored sometimes as a kid. Man, there are times that I wish I was bored. There are always too many things that I WANT or HAVE to do.

Zabada (Reprise)

A reprise to Zabada! The mystery continues . . .