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The Mountain Goats do it low-tech, yo. And daaaaaamn.
And to think there are days when I think I'm a creative person... O.o
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And to think there are days when I think I'm a creative person... O.o
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Engage the update firehose: Music!
May. 31st, 2010 01:57 pmI'm hoping to do some catchup posts today, as there are a bunch of random little things I've been meaning to post for ages. I'll try and at least group them into rough categories. First up, music!
Funeral Song
To start with, I've been meaning to post this one for a while now. There's a song I've been listening to a lot lately, and it really resonates with me; yet another example of the kind of song that takes a bleak, almost nihilistic view of life, and deals by saying "screw it, I'm gonna dance anyway", which I've come to love. I think that if I ever die (yeah that's right, I said "if"), it's the kind of song I'd like to have played at my funeral. It's called I Will Still Play, from the soundtrack to Tripod Vs The Dragon. Bonus points for getting Jason Webley or the guys from Tripod to perform it.
The Dark Elf of Metal
Speaking of death, I really regret that I didn't take a serious listen to Ronnie James Dio's music before he died. I mean, he'd been a legend for almost as long as I'd been alive, so I had respect for the man, but I also took him for granted. He was one of those guys who just looked so hardcore that the idea of him actually being mortal didn't really compute. Apparently there's an FB group called "I refuse to believe that Dio died of stomach cancer. He totally died fighting a dragon". Right on. Anyway, a few years back, Rhino records released a Stand Up and Shout, a two-disk anthology of his stuff from Black Sabbath and Dio. It's the main thing I've been listening to for the past couple of weeks, and I have only grown more fond of it.
Songs for Swinging Lovers
And now to segue from death to people who are just being really, really cynical. I've talked before about one of my favorite groups of recent years, The Indelicates. They recently released their second album, Songs for Swinging Lovers, which is remarkable for two reasons. First, it's damn good, and hearing a sophomore album by a group one likes that actually holds up to their first one is a nice thing indeed. Second, it's released on their new website Corporate Records, which is, basically, an anti-label. Similar to sites like Magnatune, artists sign with them as a digital distributor. Listeners pay what they want for an album, and profits are split 80/20 between the artist and the label. From the looks of it, anyone can sign with them, and artists retain lots of control, like the ability to remove their stuff from the site at-will. So if you produce music and are looking for a place to sell it, check it out.
Shameless self-pimpage
Several weeks back, MIT's Music Theater Guild (the people who put on the production of Evil Dead: The Musical that I was in) had an annual event called Selection, where they decide which shows to do in coming seasons. This is done by way of people who would like to see a given show go up performing songs from it as a sort of pitch. I heard that someone was interested in doing Jeckyll and Hyde, and volunteered to perform Confrontation, which is one of my favorite songs to perform. For those un-familiar with it, the song is basically Jeckyll and Hyde fighting for control of the body, which means you have a musical argument with yourself in two different voices. In other words, voice actors who also sing can have a blast with this. Anyway, I recorded it, and while the recording's a bit rough, I'm pretty damn proud of the performance. One of these days (maybe even soon), I want to do some actual home-studio recordings of songs like this, but this will have to do for now. There are a couple of stumbles with the accompaniment, but the pianist was sight-reading the song for the first time, so major props to him.
Funeral Song
To start with, I've been meaning to post this one for a while now. There's a song I've been listening to a lot lately, and it really resonates with me; yet another example of the kind of song that takes a bleak, almost nihilistic view of life, and deals by saying "screw it, I'm gonna dance anyway", which I've come to love. I think that if I ever die (yeah that's right, I said "if"), it's the kind of song I'd like to have played at my funeral. It's called I Will Still Play, from the soundtrack to Tripod Vs The Dragon. Bonus points for getting Jason Webley or the guys from Tripod to perform it.
The Dark Elf of Metal
Speaking of death, I really regret that I didn't take a serious listen to Ronnie James Dio's music before he died. I mean, he'd been a legend for almost as long as I'd been alive, so I had respect for the man, but I also took him for granted. He was one of those guys who just looked so hardcore that the idea of him actually being mortal didn't really compute. Apparently there's an FB group called "I refuse to believe that Dio died of stomach cancer. He totally died fighting a dragon". Right on. Anyway, a few years back, Rhino records released a Stand Up and Shout, a two-disk anthology of his stuff from Black Sabbath and Dio. It's the main thing I've been listening to for the past couple of weeks, and I have only grown more fond of it.
Songs for Swinging Lovers
And now to segue from death to people who are just being really, really cynical. I've talked before about one of my favorite groups of recent years, The Indelicates. They recently released their second album, Songs for Swinging Lovers, which is remarkable for two reasons. First, it's damn good, and hearing a sophomore album by a group one likes that actually holds up to their first one is a nice thing indeed. Second, it's released on their new website Corporate Records, which is, basically, an anti-label. Similar to sites like Magnatune, artists sign with them as a digital distributor. Listeners pay what they want for an album, and profits are split 80/20 between the artist and the label. From the looks of it, anyone can sign with them, and artists retain lots of control, like the ability to remove their stuff from the site at-will. So if you produce music and are looking for a place to sell it, check it out.
Shameless self-pimpage
Several weeks back, MIT's Music Theater Guild (the people who put on the production of Evil Dead: The Musical that I was in) had an annual event called Selection, where they decide which shows to do in coming seasons. This is done by way of people who would like to see a given show go up performing songs from it as a sort of pitch. I heard that someone was interested in doing Jeckyll and Hyde, and volunteered to perform Confrontation, which is one of my favorite songs to perform. For those un-familiar with it, the song is basically Jeckyll and Hyde fighting for control of the body, which means you have a musical argument with yourself in two different voices. In other words, voice actors who also sing can have a blast with this. Anyway, I recorded it, and while the recording's a bit rough, I'm pretty damn proud of the performance. One of these days (maybe even soon), I want to do some actual home-studio recordings of songs like this, but this will have to do for now. There are a couple of stumbles with the accompaniment, but the pianist was sight-reading the song for the first time, so major props to him.
