Lyrics:

and the way that we met
in the Purple Room at Powells
at Asian History

and I was browsing for samurai
and you were researching suicide
seppuku

and we joked about the privilege
of affording good beheadings
by your seconds

and the first time we went
to your mother’s house
for... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 12:47 PM on October 23, 2009

Yeah, that must be a car driving down the street in the middle of the take. I was hoping for some of that neighborhood ambiance with the mic in the window, and there it is. I had originally planned to pull in a whole extra track of neighborhood noise as its own take, for possible use as texture, but then I goofed the recording I made (monitoring instead of actually putting it down on record) and got impatient to move on, so that never got played with.

A... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:49 AM on October 25, 2009

Heh.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 1:25 PM on October 29, 2009

I can't believe I listened to the whole thing. Happy birthday, Al!
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:56 AM on October 23, 2009

Nice! That's a really clean production. Welcome to Music!
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:23 AM on October 21, 2009

Fanfuckingtastic, sir. Is the processing getup basically plug-and-play for random input files at this point, by chance? I can think of a couple bad ideas that this would be useful for.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 11:07 AM on October 14, 2009

In the original post subject's defense, building an 88-key mechanical triggering system to actually play an upright piano is a hell of an undertaking and in large part what that particular project was about.

Both are awesome, with somewhat different goals.

Yes, it can take any wav/aiff input. I wonder if your bad ideas are similar to mine?

One of my bad ideas involves piping Laurie Anderson tracks through it.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 7:04 AM on October 21, 2009

Better late than never! I'm glad you followed through putting it together.

RPM challenge going to be a solo, full-production effort this year then?
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:28 AM on October 20, 2009

it sounds like it is horrific

Or terrific, of course. And it's pretty terrific, so hey.

I'm glad you got some use of out my lyrics, rangefinder. This is really great, I couldn't ask for a nicer treatment.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 11:15 AM on October 14, 2009

oh man i totally fucking forgot about this, i am a bad friend and coworker

Happy birthday, Jessamyn. Awesome work, y'all.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 4:57 PM on September 4, 2009

Working fast is a lot of fun but rife with challenge. If you came away from this feeling like it was a good exercise, I can't recommend strongly enough that you keep at. Post-game your process afterwards to identify what slowed you down, what went well, what could have gone better if only you'd worked out x (or had a working strategy or two for dealing with x) before you started, etc.

I've found a surprising amount of stuff that used to be time-consuming (or sound like... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 11:53 AM on August 15, 2009

I really liked this, nutate. It's a nice juxtaposition of genre stylings.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 3:23 PM on August 12, 2009

That is awesome, FYI.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:05 AM on August 10, 2009

It turns out you were a couple years early with this. I really like what you guys did with it.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:23 AM on August 7, 2009

July is a son of a bitch like that. I look forward to hearing it.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 1:40 PM on August 7, 2009

Yeah, seriously, this'll be a goldmine if I decide to go that way.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 4:34 PM on August 4, 2009

If it's not a speak 'n spell, it's a demon clone from another dimension. So great.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 4:33 PM on August 4, 2009

This is nuts. I approve.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:36 AM on August 3, 2009

Ha!
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 10:36 AM on August 1, 2009

Nice! I like the mellow groove thing a lot—reworking a lot of the melody really sort of sells it for me. One of the weird things about the original (in my opinion) is the way it's got this sort of lounge-y feel to the arrangement and Nico's lead vocals, but the melody itself and the callback vox on the choruses feel much more like straight up pop stuff. Kind of a weird clash. I went for trying to just make it a little bit bigger and louder on mine, and I like that you went the other... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:35 PM on July 31, 2009

Man, this made me giggle. Good work, please do post more. Lyrics are very fun and your melodic writing and harmony vox arrangement really work well.

If you're looking for any constructive criticism, my only complaint is that your timing elements seem to be pretty loose—different parts stepping slightly out of time with each other, here and there—which is more of a problem with all the very bright staccato elements in the mix than it would be with something... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 10:07 AM on July 29, 2009

This is great! I'm so snagging that shit.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:59 AM on July 29, 2009

Nice, dude. I really like the call-in montage work.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:12 AM on July 29, 2009

Hee. That poor guy.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:09 AM on July 29, 2009

Heh, thanks all.

gnfti, this is one of those rare tracks where I do that thing you like where I don't overthink the vocals and just jump in. The main vox track was the first rough track, and I actually completely blew a phrase late in the bridge (you can tell because that's where the vox just disappears for a few seconds, heh), and at the time thought I was just being silly on the rest of the take for the sake of a runthrough.

Hence those... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:08 AM on July 29, 2009

My lack of theoretical knowledge is truly embarrassing.

Eh, I know I like to wonk out on the stuff but theory is (obviously) not anything you need to make rock-solid music. There's plenty of people who are great at theory and shit at actual songwriting/composition, at that.

I like the synth string line that comes in at the end, gives it a nice extra lift for the outro.

Bowie. Can't quite... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:01 AM on July 29, 2009

Ha!
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:49 AM on July 29, 2009

Yeah, your voice totally works here. Definitely try recording vocals on some more stuff—don't let the old psychic damage fuck with you forever.

I don't know if you (think that you) struggle with tonality; this style is so sort of talky that it's hard to tell one way or the other there, so I'd be curious to hear you do something more explicitly melodic. But you're laying on bite and attitude really well here. You don't sound like someone I'd expect to have... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:42 AM on July 29, 2009

Just an FYI, there have been no comments so far because every time someone plays this song they get mobbed by sophisticated girls.

Seriously, fun stuff, and as first-time dorkery, it's nothing to sneeze at.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:29 AM on July 29, 2009

Oh, this is all kinds of charming. Welcome aboard indeed!
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:22 AM on July 29, 2009

Ha!
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:14 AM on July 29, 2009

Nice. Fixed the link for you.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:06 AM on July 29, 2009

I don't know what it is either, but I enjoyed it. The vocal sample made me giggle.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:45 PM on July 22, 2009

I read that at first as J. Jonah Jameson and was really confused.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 12:30 PM on July 18, 2009

Dude, this is good stuff. Do post more, indeed, and welcome to Music.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:01 AM on July 16, 2009

Lyrics:

You big blue beast
Eating up all of our time
We read you at work
On the company dime

And when we go on vacation
We bring you along
And when it's your birthday
We sing you a song

You're ten years old
Just look at you go
Where you'll be in ten more
Oh I don't know

Oh oh... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 12:05 PM on July 14, 2009

Heh, thanks, man. I don't think it's really FPP material, but I appreciate the sentiment.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 7:17 PM on July 14, 2009

If I'm feeling like taking a shortcut I can always just IM myself though.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 7:30 AM on July 15, 2009

The only problem with the More Cowbell version is that it betrays the significant problems with my Walken impression.

Well, the only two problems with the More Cowbell version is the preceding and the fact that the cowbell track is a manic, idiotic distraction from the actual tempus of the song, but the latter problem is pretty much a standard feature of More Cowbell, so, hey.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 1:34 PM on July 7, 2009

*hangs MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner*
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:44 PM on July 7, 2009

I had Shatner's early recorded work very much in mind when I was working on this. My Shatner is terrible, however. Just, really, abysmal. All the nuance of a twelve year old blindly aping a Kevin Pollack bit he just saw on TV.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:00 AM on July 8, 2009

And it's a four-stringer, actually, but two of the strings broke and I hadn't replaced them yet!

Heh, choice.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 1:43 PM on July 7, 2009

I'm having sort of the same feeling about the original (about a lot of stuff on VU+N, actually), and I really like this treatment.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 1:39 PM on July 7, 2009

Hah, this is great. I'm still trying to get VU+N settled in my mind from daily listens, so I feel like I"m playing catchup even being able to appreciate what people are doing with their covers.

There's that little ii->IV/IV thing in this just like in the chorus of Femme Fatale, and I'm thinking I might need to find a way to exploit that in my cover of the latter.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 9:24 AM on July 7, 2009

So here's the literal chord structure as you've put it down here, grabbing from about 2:11 into the song:

F Bb
Watch out the world's behind you
F Bb
There's always someone around
Gm
Who will call
Eb C
It's nothing at all.

F Bb
Sunday morning...

The bit I'm... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 10:50 AM on July 7, 2009

The really short version of all that above is that the chordal move from Gm->Eb->C takes a quick jaunt out of the basic chords of the key the song is in to give us a chord from a closely-related key, which is a slightly jarring thing to do in pop music and gives it a little frisson of "ooh, didn't see THAT coming, didja?" when it happens.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 10:53 AM on July 7, 2009

And to bring the whole thing back around to my initial comment, this same thing happens in Femme Fatale, with the couplet at the end of the chorus:


I IV
She's just a little tease (she's a femme fatale)

ii
See the way she walks

IV/IV V
Hear the way she... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 11:09 AM on July 7, 2009

HHhhhhhhmmmmmmm I think I'll stick to playing by ear!

Heh. I mostly do too, really. I only learned formal theory in college, after having developed my ear sense for a decade or so of my childhood. It's really nice being able to put names to this stuff and have a system of communicating arbitrary and sometimes complicated ideas about structure to other people who speak the language, and so in that sense I'm very thankful to have gotten acclimated... [more]
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 12:59 PM on July 7, 2009

I've no idea what they are, but one of them is a sort of major shape - say a G major - where I leave the A string barred (i.e. I don't complete the major shape, and effectively only finger two strings with the rest barred)

Can you lay out the actual fingering for those chords? I'm hearing what sounds like a Fsus2 or something like that, but having a hard time picking it out of the mix.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 1:04 PM on July 7, 2009

Ha! I like it. I've never really taken the time to play with sampling, and I keep meaning to.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 8:58 AM on July 2, 2009