choking on flowers
By jwh on February 8, 2026 6:52 pm
i love you, WB friends.
XO,
jwh
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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / jwh's music / choking on flowers
such a lovely crunchy guitar groove. Awesome vocal harmonies and go go tambourine!
Listened to it about three times thinking of a meaningful comment, but I'm just humming a long.
I look forward every week to the JWH weekly special. I love the building energy in this. Great track as always. Big fan of the tambourine(?) jingley sound.
I am choking on these crunchy guitar tones...nom nom nom! So good. That chime is also yummo. Is that jingle bells or a chime? Lyrics are so powerful. Good stuff friend.
Cool 90's indie rock vibe. A little bit of Pavement and a bit of a deep dive into Elephant Six territory. The Gerbils, maybe? The lyrics feel very appropriate to this moment we find ourselves in. Can't wait until we move on.
straight out of the mid-2000's hard panned angular guitar that i loved
Absolutely perfect guitar tone for an amazing riff. Singing was awesome too, I'm assuming it's you singing two different parts but you sound like two different people which is really cool.
Oh, that crunchy panned guitar riff. And then the vocals on top? Lovely. Drums now? Oh yezzz. Epic indie rock gold.
... oh man... I have the sneaking suspicion that a lot of WB tracks this week are gonna hit me in the feels...
（ー○ー）＝３
The mix on this is really great though... the drums in particular. Really great separation and placement for each element. Just the right amount of punchyness... very well done.
Sounds great.
I don't remember where I did put my tambourine at home... needs to find it after hearing that.
I have to agree that drums are very nice. Can you track drums at home? Lovely.
We'll build it over. Love this. Really great guitar ... and your singing is great as always jwh! Nice one.
Great groove. Guitars sound excellent. Love the vocal harmonies. 
groovin' (shake shake)
TELL ME OF YOUR TONE GENERATION TECHNIQUES
So catchy, love how the band builds.
Excellent mix sir
Wow. I am touched.
The lyrics transport an extremely specific, strong feeling, that I haven't necessarily experienced myself, but that your song gives me access to.
I am also amazed how simple everything is and how it comes together so much more than the sum of its parts. It's really just two alternating chords, but the way you build it up with extremely minimalist but perfectly placed instrumentation makes it a journey. Hats off, sir!
Amazing songwriting! I love the lyrics, as well as the way they flow in rhythm across the harmonic progression, it's as if, even though there's a constant direction and momentum to it that i sink deeply into, at every turn of phrase i still don't expect you to move me this way
This has it all, awesome, the lyrics paint such a vivid picture of an entire lifetime.
ah man. beautiful but sort of hateful. I don't blame you but just thought I'd mention it.
great mix. great lyrics. great harmonies. great fucking guitar tone. great job as usual, homie!
Man those lyrics go deep, going straight for the jugular, love how you sing them on this one, fantastic work.
Always figured this would be how I'd go.
This is an awesome song man, big time Modest Mouse vibes. Excellent lyrics and production.
10/10 riff. Then the harmony and bass coming in over it.... soo good.
I wanted it to develop faster into the main section and when it did it landed a bit flat compared to the hype you laid out for it but that was a lot of hype to live up to
This is so good! I struggle a lot to leave open space - I feel this pressure to constantly fill every part of the mix as full as I can. This is such a good example of why leaving space can be so important and impactful. Instant favorite!
This makes me feel warm like when I found out about Pavement.
You have very good phrasing with your lyrics. Like late-end rhymes.
Nice one, great lyrics! Love the guitar sound and that catchy riff for sure.
Pretty chord prog, and heavy lyrics. You're an awesome songwriter jwh!
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>>> y'all are the best. thank you so much for listening and sharing some love. let's keep going
dewdrops _tunes wrote:
Big fan of the tambourine(?) jingley sound.
DenaWoods wrote:
That chime is also yummo. Is that jingle bells or a chime?
the chimey jingly sound is a tambourine! there is also a shaker in there, but yeah... i got a new tambourine last year and it has double row brass jingles and i really love how it sounds! (Dena, our good buddy Michael Doty recommended it... that dude knows his stuff!)
i sometimes have a hard time mixing tambo cuz those frequencies can be harsh, but this one seems to mix itself 
glad you enjoyed it, and thank you!
Cosmic Cairns wrote:
The Gerbils, maybe?
you know it's funny considering how much E6 stuff i love, but i never really checked out The Gerbils! is there a song or album you'd recommend?
ViridianLoom wrote:
Absolutely perfect guitar tone for an amazing riff. Singing was awesome too, I'm assuming it's you singing two different parts but you sound like two different people which is really cool.
thx so much, VL! that was me singing both parts, and yeah... other than the panning of the harmony i think i might have EQ'd them a little differently to give them their own space. the main vocal was also tracked live with one of the electric guitars that i was playing through my amp, so there was some mic spill between the vocal mic and the guitar mic (i'm generally a fan of mic spill/ bleed) which i'm sure contributed to the sound a bit.
sometimes when i record a harmony i will slow down the rate of the project and record my vocal, and then when i return it to normal speed it has a slightly different sound which can be cool to differentiate it from the main vocal. interestingly sometimes when i do that it really sounds like emily is singing the harmony! but yeah, i don't think i did that trick on this song.
djippy wrote:
Can you track drums at home? Lovely.
sometimes! we don't have a soundproofed studio area, so it can be kinda loud. but i don't have a full drum kit, so it doesn't get too extreme. for this one i did use my snare drum, and then i overdubbed shaker and tambourine. the "kick drum" was done by hitting one of those little Roland SPD-ONE sample pads with a mallet (i had some Rogers kick samples loaded), and then i did some processing with it after tracking.
i hope to get a little cocktail kit, or maybe just a kick and floor tom and high-hat to go along w/ my snare at some point.
SQF wrote:
TELL ME OF YOUR TONE GENERATION TECHNIQUES
› TONE SECRETS
LeBernd wrote:
Wow. I am touched.
The lyrics transport an extremely specific, strong feeling, that I haven't necessarily experienced myself, but that your song gives me access to.
I am also amazed how simple everything is and how it comes together so much more than the sum of its parts. It's really just two alternating chords, but the way you build it up with extremely minimalist but perfectly placed instrumentation makes it a journey. Hats off, sir!
LaBernd, this is very meaningful to me. thank you.
horatiuromantic wrote:
ah man. beautiful but sort of hateful. I don't blame you but just thought I'd mention it.
i can certainly understand why it would come off as hateful. i am angry. sad. trying not to live in fear. trying to process all this violence and cruelty and to see a way through.
all that said, this was written from a place a love. i was in tears more than once while recording it.
it sounds like you are also processing a lot of these things, through your music and in general. sending hugs your way
dadboy wrote:
This is so good! I struggle a lot to leave open space - I feel this pressure to constantly fill every part of the mix as full as I can. This is such a good example of why leaving space can be so important and impactful. Instant favorite!
thank you, dadboy! i appreciate you mentioning it as that is something i've really worked on in my recordings and mixes.
you know it's funny considering how much E6 stuff i love, but i never really checked out The Gerbils! is there a song or album you'd recommend?
They only have two albums. I probably like the first one better. The first song on it is honestly a good jumping in point.
jwh wrote:
thx so much, VL! that was me singing both parts, and yeah... other than the panning of the harmony i think i might have EQ'd them a little differently to give them their own space. the main vocal was also tracked live with one of the electric guitars that i was playing through my amp, so there was some mic spill between the vocal mic and the guitar mic (i'm generally a fan of mic spill/ bleed) which i'm sure contributed to the sound a bit.
sometimes when i record a harmony i will slow down the rate of the project and record my vocal, and then when i return it to normal speed it has a slightly different sound which can be cool to differentiate it from the main vocal. interestingly sometimes when i do that it really sounds like emily is singing the harmony! but yeah, i don't think i did that trick on this song.
Haha nice, I'll have to try that sometime. I've actually used the slowed-tempo technique to record faster guitar parts in the past. I've usually done it when it's like a chuggy riff where my coordination isn't quite clean enough to properly articulate the accents AND do it in time, so I just "cheat" it. Since it's a DI signal that gets processed afterwards, no one really notices. 😉
What the actual fuck. Heavy content, hits hard, feels personal. Following you is such a roller coaster between the little twee magical realism songs and emotionally raw pieces like this one. I'm here for it. Unsurprisingly, I have no notes. Just those five stars.
jwh wrote:
our hearts grow stronger
Indeed!
My first thought was "wow, if I could write a riff like that I'd get nothing else done that week, I'd just be stuck playing it over and over". Such a crisp tone, and so catchy.
Once your vocals hit though, I was taken aback. The lyrics are beautiful. Raw. Cutting. Like a well-written short story, the simple words imply so much and carry much more weight than they first appear to. Your delivery was also absolutely perfect, and the harmony beautifully floated on top.
ViridianLoom wrote:
Absolutely perfect guitar tone for an amazing riff. Singing was awesome too, I'm assuming it's you singing two different parts but you sound like two different people which is really cool.
This. Very much this.
I dunno what else to say other than I listened to this eight times in a row. Need a couple dozen more.
Tasty guitar tone and lick that drives this. Always a fan of those harmony vocals. I think it triggers that Low fan in me.
Love the panning on the guitars, excellent voicings between the two. The mix sounds amazing, i guess because you put some good stuff in there to begin with. And Wow those lyrics are a strong concentrate of something, very powerful!