I mixed a song today for the re-recordings volume four. This song has been recorded and uploaded to my alonetone account three times, which (I think) ties it for the most re-uploaded song ever.
It was written in 2008 (I think, it might have been 2009, but I’m pretty sure it was 2008) and it’s a little ditty about what a putz The Boy King George W Bush was. We didn’t know how good we had it when we were stuck with that schmuck for eight years.
Check it out, the first ugly clock downtown picture of the year!
That means I left the house, which means I either did car music or had to drop a package off at a UPS drop box, right? Well how about both?
I started with car music in The Loop parking lot. I did four songs, all for volume four of The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project. All of them sound… eh. Oh well.
I then went to a UPS drop box near my old apartment but the box was overflowing with packages. Any clown walking by could have just dipped in and stolen a bunch of things. I decided to wait for another day. Tomorrow? We’ll see. Tomorrow is a work day. How depressing is that? Today is the last day of the Christmas long weekend/vacation season. It’s all down hill from here. BOO!
That “BOO” was meant to express displeasure. It was not evidence of a ghost. I just thought I should clear that up. You’re welcome.
The last time I did car singing I finished what I had planned quick so I did a re-recording too. I didn’t have rhythm guitars down so I was working off an old scratch track. Tonight I put the guitars down… all of them… oh, so many tracks.
Four tracks of fat finger flubbing rhythm guitars (two takes, each with two mics for a total of four tracks)
Six tracks of lead guitar. Three takes, two mics each. One take was my usual guitar sound, one was a cleanish sound, and the third was tons of fuzz and feedback and… and… slide.
I am the worst slide player on Earth but don’t fret, I only used it for noise, and I’m probably going to play the two tracks backwards. You’re all safe. Trust me.
11 months in a row with at least 10 new songs demoed out and uploaded to two sites for safe keeping. December doesn’t have much to write home about (the first couple on the playlist aren’t awful, but that’s all) but it’s done. Also, it’s done by the 28th, just like February and every month that’s followed. I am such a nerd.
Here’s the playlist from hearthis.at which displays but only plays track one:
And here’s a link to the same playlist on alonetone which plays fine but doesn’t embed.
Up next is to do a little work on the fourth (and final?) round of The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project, and then start thinking about January.
Today was the third straight car vocals day for me. Four songs on Sunday, four songs on Monday, which left two for Tuesday. I drove to the big, empty movie theater parking lot and started singing very poorly. I had to move the car as the sun was bright and killing me. Why wouldn’t we have had clear skies last night? Once again, the universe punches me in the nards.
When the last December song was finished I had plenty of time before I had to stop so I pulled up a song from re-recording round four. It wasn’t really ready for vocals, but the bass and drums were done and there was still a scratch guitar that I could sing over. What the hell.
The song is important for two reasons. First, it contains the greatest lyric writing moment of my pathetic history. A brilliant couplet that rhymes putz and clutz. Clearly my finest lyrical hour. Second, it’s just an absolute bitch to sing. Talk about a punch in the nards. I wrote it in… 2009? Maybe? 2010? Something like that. Some pre-GarageBand date. I’ve recorded it a couple of times, and because the words were written first (which is super rare for me) and without a melody, when it was eventually put to music there was one little snag.
There was no place to breathe.
Breathing… it’s kinda important. When I recorded it before I used two tracks and they each sang alternating lines. It was a cheat. I was willing to do it again, but I thought I might try to fix it. I sped up the tempo a bit so I could get through each section in less time, and I changed a couple of quarter notes to an eighth note rest/eight note combo. Basically I put in space for really quick breaths. It worked. Except that now I feel like I am going to die. The end of the song goes verse/chorus/chorus and there are no spaces between, and the vocal from each section runs straight into the next. I had to do a 24 bar phrase with only teeny tiny little gaps for breath.
Oxygen deprivation is a thing. My head hurts. What a putz*.
*See what I did there? I said putz after previously saying putz was my finest lyrical moment? Damn, I write good and stuff.
I was just going through all of my ancient GarageBand files looking for the original masters of songs I have planned for volume four of the great re-recording project. As I was opening poorly labeled files I may have accidentally started making a list for volume five of the great re-recording project. Woops. There are only three songs, and volume four has 11… so maybe now volume four will have 14?
I am such a nerd.
Quarantine Tunes Volume 3 is officially done, I think. I put together a running order but I haven’t played through it yet. I think it’s good, but it might change a smidge. For now, let’s call it a day.
Here’s the alonetone link that will actually work.
Now I can get back to the December album in a month. I have seven songs in the works and so far only four have guitars. That’s it. I need to get cracking.
I’m also thinking of one more round of re-recordings. I’ve got 11 songs on the list right now, but I’m pretty sure I’ll drop one of them.
Oh yeah, and the 2021 RPM Challenge is less than two months away. That’s just crazy.
Quarantine Tunes Volume 3 is done apart from deciding on the final running order. Woohoo!
As for this song, I have zero clue what the lyrics were supposed to be about, but the first line of the second verse is “endlessly stall” but when I listen to it my brain hears “and Lesley Stahl” so maybe subconsciously it was about 60 Minutes?
Check it out, I uploaded a song! This song is controversial in that it claims the Earth is not flat. Shocking!
Is this one any good? Probably not. Who can say? Not me.
Inside the Red Head's Head 