So the question here is, is this song appealing to me because it’s fun to play even though it’s not all that great to listen to? I think it might be. I also think I got a little too cute with this one. Maybe if I kept the rhythm guitars and the vocals dryer I might be feeling this more than I am. Who knows.
Okay, I have to go to bed now so that I can get up early and record more awful vocals in the morning.
Rock on! (or something similar)
This is a re-recording of a song from over the summer. I haven’t listened to it back to back with the first recording, but I have a feeling this one is going to be the better one. I hope so. What’s the point of re-recording the little bastards if the second version isn’t better?
I have one more ready to mix right now but I am not sure I want to do it tonight. The Bruins are playing the Flames right now. I might just put the game on and fall asleep to it. We’ll see.
Until then, let me ask this question of the universe: Can a song be considered straight ahead rock if it is in 7/8 time?
After work today I fixed the stupid screw up of a bass guitar track (not a real bass guitar, a MIDI bass guitar played into GarageBand using the Logic Remote app on my iPhone) I mentioned in an earlier post. Dumb ass.
I expected that that would be it for music fun for me today, but then the red sea parted and I was able to sneak in about an hour of guitar playing tonight. Sweet!
The actual playing was pretty bad but the fact that I was actually playing was good. Get it?
Where do the projects stand? Well I guess I have three of them going now? Boy, that was dumb of me.
First is REM, Record Every Month. I have yet to spend even one fraction of one second thinking about this for December. Don’t worry, it’s coming… some day. HoHoHo, I guess.
Second is Quarantine Tunes Volume 5 (aka Volume 50/90 because all 10 songs were written during the 50/90 challenge this past summer). That project is hopping along. I have four songs completely finished. Two more are ready to mix, thanks to me recording bad lead guitar tracks on both of them tonight, and the last four are all ready for vocals. Four plus two plus four equals 10, right? Yeah, so that’s where this project stands.
Third is Quarantine Tunes Volume 6. I don’t know why I felt compelled to start goofing around with a song from this list before work this morning, but I did so I guess now the ball is rolling. It’s still just one song but the drums, bass, and rhythm guitars are all down and it’s ready for vocals.
So… car music tomorrow? I’ve got five songs to work with. Sounds like a plan. It depends on whether or not I can get my gigantic fat ass out of bed at a decent hour. The weather could be a factor too. It’s supposed to be pretty crappy tomorrow and if it’s too crappy I don’t want to deal with it.
So that is my musical world this evening.
At first there were four. Now there is one.
The Monkees, arguably the cheesiest result of Beatlemania, have lost another member. Michael Nesmith passed away today. Peter Tork died in 2019 and Davey Jones died in 2012 (no word on whether Marcia Brady ever washed that hand). Micky Dolenz is the only one left.
Sure, they were ridiculous and the show was gooey cheese and all, but I’ll always give them credit for refusing to be posers and forcing the show to let them play their own instruments on their records as well as writing their own songs. You’re never going to catch me listening to their stuff (though I am curious about their movie, Head… I mean… was it as bad as people say it was? Was it so bad it was good? Someday…), but I do still wonder why Nesmith, a Texan, always wore a winter hat. He couldn’t have been cold… was it a hair loss thing? I bet that was it. Am I curious enough to actually look for an actual answer to this age old question? Not even a little bit.
I know this post sounds like I am mocking the guy, but I am not. He was the real deal. If nothing else, I will always tip my (winter) hat to him for writing a song that showed up on the second (and best) Paul Butterfield Blues Band record. That alone legitimizes everything he did. (This version pre-dates the Monkees version by about a year)
Rest in peace, Michael Nesmith.
Does that title count as click bait? I think it might when I actually describe my screw up and share that it’s nothing anyone on Earth would ever give the slightest care about. Whatevs.
I just royally screwed up a music track. I started a GarageBand file for a song that someday might be on Quarantine Tunes Volume 6, which is odd given that I haven’t finished volume 5 yet. Whatevs.
It’s a song that pre-dates using GarageBand and it’s full of riffs that start an 8th note ahead of the downbeat. That means my usual method of breaking down parts into sections doesn’t work cleanly. So I was putting together the bass part and I was working on two tracks. I’d record a few bars, including the off beat thing, play it back and make sure it lined up correctly, and then join the new section to the old section, which left me with one giant MIDI track instead of the usual segmented track, which means absolutely nothing to anyone who hasn’t actually looked at one of my GarageBand files before, which means it means absolutely nothing to everyone on the planet except for me. Whatevs.
I was all the way to the end of the song and I could only see the last 20 bars or so on the screen and I some how accidentally deleted everything I had done that at that moment was off the screen. Meaning I essentially have to do the whole stupid bass track over again. I tried Command-Z but there was nothing to bring back. Whatevs.
Ugh… I feel like an amateur. I feel like a tool.
Happy Friday, everyone.
So there I was, watching the latest episode of The Flash on The CW’s website and I see a commercial that used the song All You Need is Love.
Just days after the release of the amazing Get Back documentary I hear The Beatles in a friggin’ commercial.
You suck, Michael Jackson.
The story as I remember it is that during the dark days of Jackson and Paul McCartney writing songs together, Jackson asked Paul for financial advice and Paul suggested focusing on music publishing. Not long after, Jackson bought the publishing rights to The Beatles’ catalog. Not long after that, Revolution ended up in a commercial and the world has pretty much sucked ever since.
So I just saw All You Need is Love in a commercial and it’s Michael friggin’ Jackson’s fault. Asshole.
Another new mix of a new recording of a song from over the summer. Again, I don’t think this one is as good as the original, but it’s much closer. I think the problem is that I am steadily losing the ability to sing. I get a little worse each time I try. Not a lot, but a noticeable amount.
Oh well.
I just mixed a song from the latest round of re-recordings and I don’t think it’s as good as the recording I made over the summer. I’m a little bummed out, though I haven’t actually listened to the two versions back to back yet. This one just feels too sloppy.
Cold outside, fat guy yelling inside.
Car music this morning was on the short side. I finished two songs. One went quick and easy. The other was like pulling teeth.
I might try to do some more today during my half day off. Should I? We will see.
Obligatory clock-on-the-way-home pic.
Tomorrow is going to be a weird day. I’m nearly done with the work task I mentioned before that I really wanted off my plate on Monday. I need to wrap that up and send it off, then go to a couple of meetings and then BAM! Half day. Yeah, I took the afternoon off for no good reason at all.
The only definite item on my post-work agenda is cooking dinner. Outside of that? No idea. I’d like to do some music. I have two songs ready to mix. If I can sneak out for some car music before work I might have some leads to record too. That’s a big if though.
There is a new Hawkeye episode tomorrow. Hopefully we can set up a watch party with Harry and all watch it together. We will see.
Based on what I’ve written so far I’m sure the question burning a hole in your very soul right now is, what am I cooking for dinner?
I’ll end this post with the life affirming, world rocking answer:
Spaghetti and meatballs. Awww yeah.
Inside the Red Head's Head 