Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

srgt peppers It was 40 yrs ago today that The Beatles released the hit album. Read up about the album at . Happy Birthday Sarge! And Mr. Shears!

**UPDATE: So after Mike pointed out that the wiki said differently we have been trying to figure out who is correct in this matter. All info gathered points to BBC being WRONG! Check for yourself.

allmusic.com

Oh and just to prove that I am not making this up, I grabbed a screen capture of the bbc world service website before (if ever) they change it. , and whats with the full spelling of Sergeant?

Lets all watch this glorious non-Pepper’s, yet Pepper’s-inspired video of ‘Hello Goodbye’ from Magical Mystery Tour

[youtube]QShSmpI0r9k[/youtube]

hello.music round twelve — Third Take

hello.musicOkay here is my first attempt at the vocals and lyrics… I’m sending this out for both Aryn & Greg to critique and also to help Greg figure what I have in mind for vocal placement so he can hear his drum part more clearly. This could and should change melodically and lyrically I hope once I refine it.

Here is version 2a of “Third Take.”

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/ThirdTake_v2a.mp3]

Thoughts?

UPDATE: Here is my first attempt at drums for this, version 2b.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/ThirdTake_v2b.mp3]

I only recorded a few bars then cut and pasted to help get the structure down. I’m planning to record this all as one take tommorow. ~Greg

UPDATE 3\29: Greg sent tracks tonight for drums, toms, tambourine and miscellaneous hihat noises. I did a preliminary mixdown of those to integrate into the song. The first vocal track is still in place but will need some major overhaul.

Here is version 3.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/ThirdTake_v3.mp3]

More tommorow. ~Mike

UPDATE 3\30: For comparison’s sake, here is version three with no vocals to get the full sound of the mix without the soon to be aborted lyrics.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/ThirdTake_v3_no_vox.mp3]

Old Things That Are New To Me — Whole Wide World

This past Thanksgiving when in Kansas City I took in a movie with my family; a surprisingly good and quirky romantic comedy of sorts with Will Ferrell called “Stranger Than Fiction.” The offbeat, Charlie Kauffman-esque, fourth wall-breaking plot told the story of a straight-laced and boring man (Will Ferrell) who began to hear a voice narrating his very ordinary and uninspiring life. As he slowly began to realize the narrator was an author writing his story he begins to unravel and find ways to instill new things into his plot line to prevent his ultimate fate.

In one particular scene, Ferrell sits nervously on the couch of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s apartment trying to show his romantic sincerity. Revealing that a secret dream of his was to play guitar, he picks up an all-too-coincidentally placed acoustic next to him and plays the one song he knows.

[youtube]aXAKEeYmUus[/youtube]

The whole film up to that point was backed by the music of the boozy indie-pop of Spoon, so I figured this song was by them. Eventually Ferrell’s version fades out and a Clash-like version (the original) fades in. It was such a catchy, simple pop punk perfection I left the theatre humming the song so I wouldn’t forget.

Afterwards I spent a good part of the afternoon figuring out the song was titled “Whole Wide World” by an artist named Wreckless Eric, something of a 70s Brit Punk outfit that had a few albums and faded away.

You know how it seems that once you find something, it then becomes more apparent that that it was in front of your eyes the entire time? The other day I found an old live performance of Elvis Costello and the Attractions from 1977. Buried about eight songs deep into the setlist? “Whole Wide World.”

Take a listen to that great performance:

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/ElvisCostello_WholeWideWorld.mp3]

I always love when a film introduces me to some old obscure song or artist I had previously overlooked and use it in a great cinematic way. So treat this as a lesson in romance… to impress, pull out old your rickety acoustic guitar and strum out that long lost classic tune and their hearts will melt.

UPDATE: Here is the Wreckless Eric’s version of the song:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUFL8WSxTgY[/youtube]

NPR Song Of The Day: Ry Cooder, ‘Cardboard Avenue’

Ry Cooder's My Name Is Buddy is out now.
Ry Cooder’s My Name Is Buddy is out now.

I’ve long been a fan of Ry Cooder and his extremely versatile and inventive, shape-shifting approach to guitar. Here’s a short thing on “Cardboard Avenue,” a song from one of his latest projects, My Name Is Buddy, for NPR’s Song of the Day. Read the essay and take a listen to the song here.

Continue reading NPR Song Of The Day: Ry Cooder, ‘Cardboard Avenue’

hello music – This Song is Untitled

Ok so this is one I have had in the works since last month, and here is the newer version ( a shell anyway) improved, and ready for production. This one still needs:

Thicker guitar sounds (esp at the end) – Mike?
Drums (all around) – Greg?
Lyrics – All?
Bass – (all around) – Greg? can you do this, I am really not very happy with the sounds I am getting (or not getting) from my setup here.. It needs more cojones!

I would like for all of us to harmonize some vocals on here, I have the main melody figured out, and some ideas for the ending section, but I am still not sure what needs to happen with that interlude section towards the front, might need to be taken out entirely, or severely added to. Anyway, this one still has some work to be done. What do you think?

This Song is Untitled. (working title)

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_aryn/This_Song_is_Untitled.mp3]

hello.music round eleven — Third Take

hello.musicI spent much of last week listening to a lot of My Bloody Valentine… the epitome of a genre now called ‘shoegaze‘ or ‘shoegazer.’ The term apparently comes from the fact that the guitar players in bands like these were the ‘anti-guitar heroes’ and instead of putting on a show of guitar pyrotechnics, they would simply take the backseat and look to their feet…essentially gazing at their shoes. In My Bloody Valentine’s case, they (Kevin Shields mostly…who did later wrote major portions of the Lost in Translation soundtrack) created giant walls of white noise and layers of distorted reverb-drenched guitars.

So what does that have to do with anything? Last week I put up a very basic guitar track (‘Second Take’) of a chord progression in 6\8 I came up with. Feeling a bit writer’s blocked as to what direction to take it, I decided not to touch it for awhile. Well I didn’t completely leave it alone. I took the same progression from last week’s song and changed it dramatically.

As you will hear, the song, now titled creatively, “Third Take,” is now a mush of reverby, crunchy distorted guitars, muddy and loud. But the more I listen to these layers, the more I begin to hear a beauty in the distorted harmonies and simple melodies. I am planning on writing a vocal part that is higher in register, maybe somewhat filtered in the way Sparklehorse or Kevin Shields might sing…and really go with the genre exercise.

Something very cathartic about laying the distortion on thick. Anyway, what do you all think? “Third Take version one.”

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/ThirdTake_v1.mp3]

UPDATE: This morning I added a few things to the mix, but changed it just enough to have it take on some new shape. Here is Third Take v1b.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/ThirdTake_v1b.mp3]

Here is a checklist of things I need to add:
1) a few more reverby effects and things to make the layers a bit smoother around the edges

2) real drums

3) bass?

4) vocals
anything else?

Loss of Productivity…

Kansas Jayhawks...Every year as the NCAA Tournament starts up, there are always a few articles reporting lost productivity at work during the three weeks of the tournament. According to one figure, 1.2 billion dollars worth of worker productivity is lost. Obviously since I am both reading the article about loss of productivity, and writing about it here, I am a contributing to that.

So who to pick? At this point the brackets should be finished and turned in since games start in less than two hours. But just in case, last night’s Colbert Report had some friendly tips.

As you can see, through a series of rigorous criteria, Stephen Colbert has determined that the Kansas Jayhawks will be the team this year. Here’s hoping…

hello.music round ten — Second Take

hello.musicOnce again, title is meaningless since I have no words. But before I go too far into this song, I thought I’d bump it to you guys to see what you thought. Don’t want to go the normal alt-country singer-songwriter route here and do it straight forward but not sure how to mix it up.

Could in theory go into Sparklehorse territory with some dark background atmosphere and such. Or it could really go normal Ryan Adams\Wilco route as well. I have a bassline in mind if I go a certain direction that I might play on guitar first and have Aryn retrack it on his bass. Could really use some Greg drums or other instruments too… Should I let the structure breathe a bit more and have some interlude stuff? Should I leave it tight and straight up? You guys have any other suggestions?

Second Take version one.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/SecondTake_v1.mp3]