A few things to consume today:
— In a Take-Away Show-inspired move, Shout Out Louds perform their new single on the streets.
— Pitchfork interviews The White Stripes.
— Baadasssss filmmaker and blaxploitation provocateur Melvin Van Peebles talks with Nerve.
Welcome back everyone to Hello Music releases… My absence can only be explained by computer problems, nice weather, and a general malaise of artistic self doubt. As you will here on this track, it is largely unfinished and still pretty rough. The vocals will need to be redone for pitch, the second verse added as well.
In addition there seems to be things lacking sonically; perhaps its in need of a more tonal center that can be aided with some droning synths or organ, some atmospheric depth and perhaps bass. I don’t want to overdo this song and let it get mucked up in too many overdubs so that will be my challenge for myself.
This being cover song month, I decided to not only cover one of Aryn’s songs (coming soon), but record a song by another band (or in this case bands). This song combines elements of Tortoise’s ‘TNT’ and Shout Out Louds’ ‘A Track and a Train’ played in a slower style that hopefully with be something of a dirge like something Sparklehorse would do.
Not sure its there yet but might as well show it off here to get some suggestions and outside opinions.
Here it is, version 1a of my cover of TNT.
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/TNT_v1a.mp3]Anyway, thoughts?
Here are some things we suggest you read if you like to read on the web.
— NPR’s All Things Considered talks about Michael Moore’s new film Sicko.
— Slate explains how Apple squeezed out more power from the iPhone’s battery.
— AV Club chats with Spongebob voice (and Mr Show alum) Tom Kenny.
— Wired takes a look at writer\director Judd Apatow‘s tv\film progression of adolescence to adulthood.
More than a week after last Monday’s finale of the Sopranos, discussions, arguments and over-analysis in reaction to the controversial ending have calmed to a mild simmer. But with the spoofs and remix projects now coming fast and furious, a co-worker and I began to wonder about the impact of the usage of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin” in that final scene.
I’ll confess, that despite my not-so-secret dislike of Journey, huge 80’s metal hair and tight leather-panted arena rock, I found myself listening to this song a few times last week.
Turns out, I was not alone… as the Kansas City music blog Back to Rockville finds, Billboard is reporting huge boosts for the single and for the Greatest Hits collections of Journey:
The track, Don’t Stop Believin’, has re-entered the Hot Digital Songs chart at No. 21 with 41,000 paid downloads — an increase of 371% in online sales from the previous week, and the song’s best digital sales week ever!
Journey’s “Greatest Hits” album sold nearly 11,000 units this week — a 111% gain for the in-store sales.
The song is admittedly, (and embarrassingly) catchy. So it comes as no surprise that the viewers are are rediscovering their love of the band after the huge media reaction last week. Guess it was a good thing after all for Steve Perry, that he allowed his song to be used for the show.
So what does this mean for the legacy of Journey? A reunion tour? A new remix album? Appearances at Sopranos fan conventions? More leather pants? Or at very least nice boost of of income to squander of the vices of rock and roll stardom. Much like the ambiguous ending of Tony Soprano, all of this remains is up to us to decide…
Three things worth giving a crappy about today on the net:
— The AV Club’s Noel Murray discusses the fiasco that was Waterworld in his great My Year in Flops series.
— NPR reports on illegal indie rock from Iran.
— Secret vintage video games discovered, embedded in vinyl LPs!
–BONUS!!! Watch the full Robot Chicken Star Wars Special here.
As a new feature to our trusty and oft-neglected blog, we present Recommended Readings in which we will try to link three selected items of interest found on the internet…not to redundantly re-blog things from the web-world but more as a way to provide a selected syllabus of things we suggest you read. Today’s entries:
— NPR interviews Feist on WESAT.
— New York Times feature on the ever prolific and even more controversial Ryan Adams
— Cracked (the once MAD Magazine ripoff) offers the best moments of 30 Rock.
— BONUS!!! The Watson Twins cover Spoon’s I Summon You (courtesy of KCRW)
This month of hello.music is dedicated to the cover. To keep the creative juices flowing, we’re changing it up again for the June EP. This month we each have to cover a few tracks written by the other two gents. How different will a song sound when someone else does it? Is a cover better if it stays true to the original or when it makes drastic changes? Find out those answers and more at the end of this month!
I shall start things off with a cover of a Michael Katzif song. First, listen to the original.,
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/ep/februaryEP/CloudedSpaces/01_LookOut.mp3]…and then take a peek at my cover of Look Out.
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_greg/Look%20Out%20%28Acoustic%20Version%29.mp3]Tonight, I really wanted to just sit and play guitar to relax from the daily grind- didn’t even want to mess with a metronome track. Nothing too special, but it is quite a bit different from the original. Enjoy!
In response to a recent email string discussing the making of drum sounds, I decided to make a bunch of un-effected, un-eq’d, isolated drum files for us to play around with. Here is the challenge:
1. Take these tracks and convert into something more interesting.
2. Report back here with your refurbishments and let us know how you did it.
3. Discuss.
That’s it! This is really open ended, so there’s no need to create anything finished sounding. Little riffs are just as good as a full song.
bass drum
snare drum
floor tom
crash cymbal
ride cymbal
fills
mallets
This would be the cover to my ultra-pretentious New Wave-Electro Kraut-pop solo album, affectionately titled “Der Goldene Bär Explodiert mit Neuen Tönen.”
For the record, I did not steal those glasses from an elderly woman with glaucoma…but I would have if I had half a chance.
Once again, we fell a bit behind. But as I look at the publish date for April, I see we beat that by a whole day! So here it is, our proud little three song EP for May, The Cavalry Arrived Again.
The plan, as the folklore will recall, was to independently write three songs in isolation and no discussion between us (though we cheated a bit there) using a common bass line that followed a chord progression we wrote together in Chicago nearly a month ago.
As it turned out, our challenge, dreamed up as a way to change up the process a little, proved to be more demanding. It can be difficult, when life and jobs and other activities start to creep in, to find the time and ambition to be creative. At different times, I think all of us were feeling a bit burnt out and under-inspired. But as the days crept away, I think this collection of music came together nicely.
With Greg’s deconstructionist approach, Aryn’s hand percussion whimsy and my set of lyrics that have staring roles in not one, but TWO songs (I still find it strange to hear Aryn sing my words in his song), I think we somehow found a good last-minute flow of songs.
So without further ado, check out the album here, listen to our podcast here, befriend us on MySpace, and feel free to comment right here on our blog or write to us at mayEP@hellocomein.com. Enjoy!
—–
Temporary Setback :: January 2007
Clouded Spaces, Falling Skies :: February 2007
First Pull Up, Second Pull Down, Third Take Away :: March 2007
Ancient Telephones :: April 2007
The Cavalry Arrived Again :: May 2007
Designed In Anticipation Of His Centennial Years :: June 2007
The Rundown :: July 2007
The Ninth Great Fire :: August 2007
Empty Bottles And Dog-Eared Books :: September 2007
I Can Fix Things In The Morning :: October 2007
We Are Full Of Useful Noise :: November 2007
The Last Duel :: December 2007