I be change seek- man- fest words

September 29, 2015 4:05 AM

In this acoustic version of Permanent Holiday by Hawaii-based reggae musician Mike Love, a seemingly random assortment of syllables slowly grows into a song over a period of three minutes.

Reddit breakdown of exactly what he's singing.

[via Colossal]

posted by ellieBOA (14 comments total)

Spectacular!
posted by h00py at 4:17 AM on September 29, 2015

That was amazing. I'm not usually a reggae fan, so I didn't have high expectations, but wow.
posted by ctmf at 4:24 AM on September 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

That's really neat.
posted by langtonsant at 4:25 AM on September 29, 2015

Excellent. That dude knows how to get around on his pedals.
posted by googly at 6:06 AM on September 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

That was certainly impressive, and a nice effect of building up the syncopated phonemes. Which also speaks directly to the subject of the song.

A theme I pretty much feel about my relationship with the computer industry at this point.
posted by clvrmnky at 6:24 AM on September 29, 2015

Note that the really amazing part ("a seemingly random assortment of syllables slowly grows into a song over a period of three minutes") isn't at the beginning -- it starts at about, uh, 4:20.
posted by jhc at 6:48 AM on September 29, 2015 [8 favorites]

He has a phenomenal sense of organization, with I don't know how many levels of things going on all at once, and changing throughout the song. He must have planned that well before he even started playing it and been practising for quite some time.

Very impressive, thanks for the link.
posted by ashbury at 6:54 AM on September 29, 2015

And then Fat Freddy's Drop, Based on a True Story played next in it's entirety. A modern masterpiece of the genre, that one.
posted by ashbury at 6:56 AM on September 29, 2015

Man. I can't even manage to stomp on the overdrive pedal at the exact instant the guitar needs to start going doodle doodle squeal kaping. This guy's feet must have their own brains. Impressive.
posted by bondcliff at 7:31 AM on September 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

That was good. Thanks for posting it.
posted by mosk at 8:32 AM on September 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Damn. That was lovely from beginning to end. The word buildup trick in the middle was just icing on the cake.
posted by egypturnash at 9:51 AM on September 29, 2015

I am generally predisposed to be extremely sketched out by a white dude sitting in a suburban kitchen with a bunch of fancy tech gadgets and singing about eschewing the corporate money trap in a Caribbean accent. The guy's name even makes me wince, here.

This should be like a perfect storm of wackness.

But okay metafilter. You got me. That was well done.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 9:58 AM on September 29, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'm not 100% sure, rum-soaked space hobo, but if its any consolation I'm 90% sure that they're in a recording studio I've worked in before. There's a couple out here that have kitchen units in them. I think most of the studios out here double as the producer or engineer's apartment. The big ugly rug that they're on is sort of typical for studios out here and the space in general looks more like a studio than a place where somebody actually lives.

Anyhow, I've recorded in a place just like this, if not this very place.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:05 PM on September 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

Okay, that's kind of neat to learn, and kind of makes sense.

It's still going to be rare that I enjoy haole reggae, though.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:31 PM on September 29, 2015 [1 favorite]