I too have not had much to show for my month of July…so the story goes. But I’ve certainly been stockpiling and tossing around some ideas for a few months. One such tune is this first attempt at recording a REALLY rough version of The Imitators. No words to speak of yet, but as you will hear by the occassional vocal utterance, I have snippets of a melody in mind. Its just a matter of writing some lyrics.
Pretty much everything you hear will need to be retracked, mixed etc but I just needed to get something down before I forgot. Hopefully Greg or Aryn can play some bass and drums or both on this to fill it out (and so I can do away with that horrible click track).
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/TheImitators_v1.mp3]As a bonus, I decided to release that painful writer’s block by clearing my head a bit and just slamming out a pretty terrible rendition of Brian Eno’s classic ‘Needle In The Camel’s Eye.’ This is one of my favourite songs and despite being written in 1974, sounds like it could have been done in the last few years.
If I were to finish this up, I would definitely lay some real drums, some bass, retrack a bit of the vocals to sound tighter and do a fancy studio fade out instead of the ending I have here. One thing I do like here is the sound of that biting bright guitar.
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/NeedleCamel_v1.mp3]So, one original song for you two to play with or make suggestions…thoughts?
UPDATE 7\22: Did some retracking and some cleaning up of The Imitators today and began work on the lyrics for this number. This version is sans any vocals, but I think its starting to come together a bit better… certainly less sloppy.
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/TheImitators_v2.mp3]
(Excerpt from iChat chat Sunday July 22 11:23am)
Aryn Crowley: I like your two songs you have up
mike katzif: theyre okay i guess
Aryn Crowley: they need some tending
Aryn Crowley: but good start
Aryn Crowley: s
mike katzif: no kidding
mike katzif: yours is good too
Aryn Crowley: you totally have that wayne coen/ jeff tweedy sound down
mike katzif: im not even going for that
mike katzif: i just have a shitty voice
Aryn Crowley: its your vocals
mike katzif: so it a good thing?
mike katzif: man i cut my upper lip shaving today and now trying to eat is painful
Aryn Crowley: yikes
Aryn Crowley: using the old straight razor again?
Aryn Crowley: split that lip like a hot sausage
mike katzif: a grapefruit spoon
mike katzif: lathering up with anti freeze
Aryn Crowley: the imitators kind of derails for that middle section
mike katzif: yeah
mike katzif: when playing here acoustic its okay
Aryn Crowley: and those drums have gotta go
mike katzif: but when recorded it derailed
Aryn Crowley: yeah
mike katzif: and yes those are just temp drums
mike katzif: to give it a sense of tempo
Aryn Crowley: right
mike katzif: i expect you or greg to help out with a sturdy rock beat
Aryn Crowley: the drums in my are probably temp too
Aryn Crowley: totally
mike katzif: feel free to give it a go
11:25 AM
Aryn Crowley: k
mike katzif: and add some bass there too
mike katzif: and feel free to write this stuff for the blog
Aryn Crowley: we have a BLOG!??
mike katzif: go figure
Aryn Crowley: I will copy in
Is all that you have as a comment that this sounds like some song from Something About Mary? …which I dont really know if i recognize.