I don’t have it in me to articulate today’s adventures quite yet, but:
Whuffaoke is a country-spanning karaoke tour based out of one amazing winnebago. They are also some of the sweetest people I have ever met. Over the course of seven hours I sang “Video Killed the Radio Star,” “Since U Been Gone,” “Semi-Charmed Life,” “Time Is Running Out,” “Don’t You Want Me,” and – amazingly, as I’ve never performed it before – “Here We Go Again” by Whitesnake.
In addition to not having it in me to articulate, I think I may have also lost the power of speech.
Whuffaoke continues on Monday at 13th and Sansom at 5pm sharp. Be there.
The internet had the chance to see and hear the first ever live web concert of my original songs and familiar covers, plus help to raise donations for Unicef’s Believe in Zero campaign for 12for12k
My 12for12k Setlist with demo downloads (if available)…
For people who watched and said they’d be interested in buying a CD (a) you are wonderful, and (b) download what you will and make a donation to this month’s charity, Unicef’s Believe in Zero. As a bonus, you can also grab my duo’s most recent Live @ Rehearsal album.
Also, we had a high of 40 unique users in the room at one time, so that’s what I donated ;)
E and I got the word last week that the Drexel Treblemakers were putting out a last call for arrangements for this year’s repertoire, which meant several all-nighters between the two of us.
The TMs are a contemporary acappella group, which E used to sing-for and music-direct when she was at Drexel. “Contemporary acappella” means that they recreate modern pop hits with just their voices.
When I say “arrangement,” I mean just that – an arrangement of notes that make up the composite song that comes out of the group. Acappella songs don’t happen out of thin air. Unless you’re in a group of the finest doo-wop singers around (each equipped with pitch-perfect ear and all egalitarian when it comes to choosing what instrument to sing) it takes some specifics to turn a pop song into an all vocal jam.
It’s the job of an arrangement to replicate the song for voices in the form of sheet music. As an arranger, you might take the approach of transcribing each specific instrument individually for voice, or you might prefer to address the overall tonality of the song instead. Either way, it’s hard work – especially if you’re doing it by ear rather than from print music for the song.
“By ear” means you sit down and pluck out every note that’s being made in the song, transcribing its pitch, rhythm, and dynamics, until you’ve got an entire song. An average 100-bar rock song in 4/4 with six voice parts offers circa 3000 notes to transcribe.
It’s even harder when arranging for an all-female group, because you have less dynamic range to work with. With a bisexual group you have men to sing the lowest of the lows – you can duplicate a guitar easily, and cover most bass parts (or create the illusion of them by maintaining the divide between the lowest note and the next highest note).
Even an all-guy group has a massive range – as a baritone I can reliable produce soprano Ds and higher, which means a group of 12 of me would only be half-an-octave shy of the highs of a girl group … but with an entire extra octave on the bottom (and that assumes all girl-groups will be able to sing down to a Baritone D, which most cannot. TMs has always been special in that regard).
Female groups have a reduced range, which makes it harder to arrange well for them. Thrashy rock songs rely on a lot of low Ds and Es, and most girl groups don’t have them. And, girl groups largely wuss out when it comes to vocal percussion.
Luckily, the TMs have never had those two problems, and have stretched to crazy lengths to accommodate my arrangements. I had my good buddy Sara singing low C#s on “Stay,” and our maid of honor Amanda doing sub-woofer rattling kick drums on “I Think I’m Paranoid.”
Both of us used to arrange like mad for the TMs when we were in school – we arranged two-thirds of their first CD (That page has sound-clips, and The TrebleMakers on MySpace has whole songs. Listen to “I Think I’m Paranoid” on the former, and “Rhiannon” on the latter – one of the best all-female acappella arrangements I’ve ever heard (not surprisingly, by my wife)).
Since we’ve graduated we always have a glut of songs we want to do for the TMs, and this year we actually finished two – the most we’ve done since 2006. I arranged Paramore’s “That’s What You Get,” and Erocked Ingrid Michaelson’s “Die Alone. Mine was good-but-wobbly when I first heard it; E’s sounds even better than the actual version.
We both wanted to do another song had been debating between Rilo Kiley’s “Portions for Foxes” and “Breakin’ Up.” The former – a guitar rocker – was more my speed, but the latter – a sparse, funky tune – was better for E.
When we got the word that the deadline was looming E forged ahead with “Breakin’ Up,” which left me songless. The group now includes singers born after the release of Like a Prayer, so digging out an old Madonna chestnut wasn’t necessarily the best option (and that means they were only ages 6-9 when most of my favorite female modern rock was on the radio – yikes).
In a pinch, I went to the path of least resistance: Kelly Clarkson.
I love her. TMs love her. Audiences know her stuff. Easy pick.
The lead single from her new disc All I Ever Wanted is “My Life Would Suck Without You,” which is a bit of a … hrm, how shall I phrase this … piece of tripe. It’s a straight-forward DDR stomper with an unsubtle melody and absolute crap lyrics.
The lyrics are a bit dishwatery, but the music is awesome – like KC fronting Fall Out Boy. Once I got past some of the lamer turns of phrase it was insta-love, listening to it ten times a day.
Last Thursdayish, on perhaps listen number six of the day and while contemplating if I could really arrange it for TMs due to the spread of notes in that main riff, I realized something major – the chorus is the same damn thing as “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down,” just a whole step higher. You can sing the melodies of each interchangeably.
Go ahead, try it.
Acappella groups love medleys, and I didn’t think the TMs could resist the next KC single combined with FOB’s biggest hit. My mind was made up. I walked home on Friday singing the bass notes of the song over and over, and began arranging as soon as I was in the door.
In crazy-record time – under 72 hours – I arranged the entire song by ear. That’s a big leap from the months it took my to do “Stay,” which started out as guitar tab on a cocktail napkin.
I started out sketching in as many of the bass notes as I could, skimping on rhythm unless it was important (which it is with the walks on the chorus), and then adding the vocals. I find that to be the easiest way to get started with a by-ear arrangement, as everything else has to fit between the two.
Afterward I went back to layer in the guitar riffs, heard mostly in the verses, before wrestling with chorus harmony Kelly notoriously stacks multiple harmony notes and auto-tunes them to sit tightly together, which makes it nearly impossible to pick them out. It’s more of a best guess situation, and I needed the guitars first so I’d have a litmus test for if I got the harmony wrong.
Finally, I fleshed out the interior chords of chorus and the remainder of bass rhythms, as well as brought the bridge to life. I spent the remainder of Sunday and Monday splitting instruments intro appropriate voice parts, fudging the riffs a bit where necessary to sound smoother for voice, and adding the “SWGD” medley to the bridge.
I finally gave in to sleep and needing to do other stuff, emailing the group my arrangement without all of the lyrics, syllables, and dynamics. I told them I’d go back and add them if they picked it.
TMs chose new tunes last night, and both “IDNHU w/SWGD” and “Breakin’ Up” were on their list. We’re still waiting to hear if either of our tunes made it in to the repertoire.
And that’s where I was through Monday night. Next up: open mics, impromptu press kits, twitter addictions, and impending broadway auditions.
I’ve been really exhausted lately. Not physically exhausted, though. Intellectually.
When we first got back from the honeymoon I was in my super-aggressive “What would Madonna do?” phase. Working fiercely, hitting open mics, having rehearsals, et cetera.
I still have the physical energy to do all of that, but I’m the past few weeks I’m lacking for the mindful fire. Not working on new songs, or writing blogs (clearly). Just working hard, eating, watching movies, and listening to music.
I know I was doing it because I was just a bit burnt out, but that’s sort of the point of the WWMD plan: there is not burnt out – only burning up. I have to be on fire constantly.
So, here I am cultivating the embers, and I get to this super-introspective place. Like, wow, there are people whose life this is. They work, eat, and sleep. Maybe they like watching movies, eating out, playing video games, or playing sports, but the w/e/s cycle is the point of them.
No output. No creativity. Just cycle and recycle.
Is that why people make up religion and children? Because they haven’t found anything better to do than watch basketball games?
I’m not asking to judge, I’m just trying to understand myself a little bit better. I’m all for having a loving god and a happy family, but I want to leave behind something more tangible than a bloodline and a fossil record.
On the other hand, how many years can you be burning up before you are permanently burnt out?
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Elise and I are in the process of starting our own little freelance duo.
Our first client is Joshua Popejoy, an LP Artist who is regular at the LP open mic. We made for a great fit, because Joshua didn’t have much in the way of press material (which boggled me, as he’s one of the more radio-ready artists out of the seemingly never-ending stream of local acts) and we didn’t have much in the way of a portfolio (silly, since we both do this sort of stuff professionally).
We started building some basic materials for Joshua, with an eye towards a 3/1 deadline so he could apply for some upcoming festival gigs, including MusikFest in Bethlehem, PA. I created a marketing plan and wrote his bio and press kit materials while Elise started on a website.
We heard on Wednesday that Joshua got picked to play the main stage at MusikFest.
I know he mostly got picked because he plays awesome, listenable, mainstream music. But, if even 1% of why he got picked was because I wrote a bio that makes you feel that music before it gets heard, then I did my job well.
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In March we bought a car.
It’s the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought, and the first thing I’ve legally owned with Elise.
It’s pretty and exactly what we wanted and I still don’t know how I feel about it. I’m finally excited to be able to drive, so I can do all the things I always want to do but can’t quite get to. On the other hand, everything feels farther away now. “Sure, I could get there on public transit in an hour, but you could drive me there in twenty minutes.”
As things get closer they start to feel farther away?
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I’ve been spending a lot of time on FaceBook and Twitter for some work and LP purposes
I’m typically resistant to pushing any original content through anywhere other than CK, because Ck is supposed to be the source. But I get a little chink in my armor for status updates. Like, hmm, its just 140 characters. What’s the worst that can happen?
It’s interesting how I don’t see 140 characters of my life as something blog-worthy. In my first month plenty of posts were just simple, single streams of thought. That’s what blogging was.
Now blogging is about hot links and meaningful, carefully proofread essays, and if you want minute-by-minute coverage you spend all day tweeting.
I’m really struggling to define that divide. I like the tiny status pings of a day gone by – it lets my know something actually happened in my life. But, do I want to give that all away to FaceBook or Twitter, where I’ll never really own it as my own?
On the other hand, do I really want to go back to all that tiny crap flooding across the CK main page?
I’m not sure. This digital world is so different than the one I originally found myself a part of in 2000. The thing that hasn’t changed is that I want to keep myself collected, so that in another nine years I can still witness all that went by.
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It’s been an interesting two months of married life. I’m more ambitious and inspired than ever, but I also feel suddenly so mainstream.
It’s a volatile concoction. If I let the two sides bleed into one another too much I wind up like the new Kelly Clarkson record – shiny and pleasing, but likely to be memorable only for being popular.
I have to stop obsessing about formulas and just be daring. I keep forgetting that I’ve always thought art is in the imperfections.
Before we head into a week of Kelly Clarkson coverage (just kidding!) (but not really!), here’s a brief interlude from real life.
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(1) Today at work we had a meeting about social networking.
I make it a point not to talk about work so much, but this seems like a big milestone. After all of my years of harping about dragging ourselves into a new digital era I was in a meeting about figuring out how to drag ourselves into a new digital era. My work life has officially merged with my home life.
In said meeting was a hyper-intelligent new employee from elsewhere in the company who joined to chip in her expertise. I expect to be her employee by 2013.
At one point I was trying to articulate how some social networks make a certain amount of sense to me, while others do not. My overly long introduction to that thought was, “It’s not that I think I’m so old (maybe I am), but… [insert communications nonsense here].”
Meeting newbie came back with, “Oh, I don’t think you’re old.”
I should mention that I shaved prodigiously this morning and look about 12.
Somewhere in NJ Kate is still laughing at me.
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(2a) Is it just a given at this point that we’re all having nightmares about an imminent, complete, worldwide, economic collapse?
I mean, I am certainly not denying the existence of a recession, as the evidence is all around me in my group of close friends. Those nightmares were already existent, thank you very much.
No, this is more global, and more systemic. Like, I just had a dream that I was camping in a derelict, foreclosed row home (possibly just down the street from here), and that the banks were going house to house to take the squatters prisoner to work in their slave camps. They were executing the infirm and the socialists on sight.
Something like that, anyhow. Are you having those nightmares too?
(2b) I generally hate when people blog about dreams. Isn’t real life wonderful and terrifying enough? Dream posts are really the only things I ever redact – I write them all out and then think, Who in god’s name is going to stick around after hitting this tripe off of a Google search?
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(3) As to my sudden subconscious fixation with us going the way of Mad Max (before subsequently going the way of Waterworld), maybe it’s just because I was reading about motel homeless earlier.
Okay, honestly? It’s more because of my trip to F.Y.E. to buy the Kelly Clarkson album, which is the only reason I would ever set foot into that abomination of a retail establishment.
I detest F.Y.E. on principal – that a chain with so little relevance or personality could supplant Tower Records as the sole national record-seller is inherently offensive to me. Seriously, they could be a chain specializing in argyle socks and turn-of-the-century coffee pots and I feel like the retail experience would be exactly the same.
Anyway.
This afternoon the sales floor was barren. A group of teenagers were lazily playing Rock Band off in one corner. There was a single cash register open, doing no business whatsoever.
I was accosted by five employees in quick succession within 90 seconds of entering the store. Each of them asked if they could help me find anything, with a certain lingering desperation in their eyes. Like, “for the love of god let me help you find something; if I don’t sell at least two CDs every hour they’ll fire me.”
I started assigning them trivial tasks, just to clear the cannon fodder. One lad I engaged with couldn’t find an explicit version of a Pink album and mumbled some mea culpa like, “You know I could just burn that for you or something did you want maybe a Pink Floyd album instead you know I went to college to get this job please just kill me.”
I did a lot of nodding and backing away, and found myself cornered by another sales associate in the classical section.
It took a while to escape with my Kelly, who always leaves me feeling obligated to stimulate the economy by purchasing music at irrelevant brick and mortar retailers.
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(4a) The house at the end of our block burnt down last week. The debris is still on the sidewalk, giving off a certain hickory flavor.
Last week I wouldn’t leave the house for work until the firemen stopped looking concerned. In row homes that’s only eight doors from here.
(4b) I spend all this time (and money) acquiring Kelly Clarkson albums and guitars and French graphic novels, and all of that could burn away in a matter of minutes. Or the renegade banking enforcement brigade could kick down my door and take everything in the financial holocaust.
It makes me think about the intangible things in my life that have value. I guess in that way social networking is a beautiful matrix, containing all of the memories you might have lost in the flames.
My songs can never burn down. My blog can never burn down.
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(fin) I’m just going to keep living my life, going to meetings, and creating things.
I spent the last four hours setting up for and recording a Trio, but the more I listen to it the more it sounds like a full dress rehearsal rather than an actual show.
Positives:
- Good setup; very clean sound
- Great performance of my new song
- Articulate between-song talks
- Bonus: Made it through a really hard cover for the first time, ever
Negatives:
- Brief audio skips from my FirePod (as many as three per song?)
- Blew my voice attempting a different (easier) cover; lead to lack of dynamics on (harder) cover
- Questionable rhythms on my old song; bad final note
- Bonus: Audio sync on my camera didn’t work
I’m trying to get away from being a crazy perfection freak, because that doesn’t lead to a high quantity of Trios. However, given the clarity of the audio the skipping is driving me crazy, and that’s enough of a reason to compound the other negatives into a redo. Freak or not, I want to be able to listen to Trio months from now without wincing (which was generally the bar I set for myself in Season 5, and it worked out nicely).
Also, I really wanted to do a video podcast of some portion of Trio in video, but my camera doesn’t seem to be up to the job. I can use Elise’s video camera, but that means waiting until she returns to the country, plus a few days (at least) to learn what to do.
So, sadly, I bring you no Trio. We’ll see how long it takes me to trouble-shoot the audio skips and work from there.
One 20 oz. Beer = Forgetting the first line to every song in my entire repetoire.
One and a half 20 oz. Beers = Note-perfect Kelly Clarkson songs with impromptu djembe.
By way of explanation, there is a standing Thursday night open mic in Philly at Buckets. It’s a small, comfortable room, organizer Josh knows how to mix, and the beers on tap are served in 20 oz. glasses, which slay me every time.
First I joined Lindsay to play an impromptu “Who Will Save You Soul,” followed by a barely memorized “Time After Time” that sorta rocked, and finally our bluesy “Oh, Darlin’.”
A few minutes later (after the euphonium solo) (no, really) (and it was awesome) I played one peculiar set of “Regrets,” “Rehab,” a little bit of “Not So Bad” until I realized that I had no idea what the first line was, “Icy Cold” (during which the first line of “Not So Bad” popped into my head out of nowhere, which was a little distracting to remember while singing “Icy Cold”), following by “Not So Bad.”
Later, after a Jim-Morrison-does-Johnny-Cash-playing-left-hand mindbending set by someone whose name I didn’t catch, we realized we had run out of people, so I went up again for an epic set of “Standing,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “Under My Skin,” “Love Me Not,” “Day 94″ (!), and – by request – “Since U Been Gone.” And, being buzzed and agreeable at that point (enough that I was playing Kelly Clarkson by request in a bar), when I noticed Josh’s drummer tapping along on the bar I recruited him mid-verse into the tune.
And it fucking rocked. It’s nice to be out in the world playing in front of people again.
Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – typically features original songs, but for the third in a special trio of trios I am covering some of the songs that have influenced me and my songwriting. The first two influences Trios featured childhood and teenage influences.
You were supposed to receive the second Influences Trio tonight, but it took six hours last night to get one song right, and we are leaving on our T-Day expedition to NJ in a few hours.
This exemplifies why Trio did not typically include cover songs back when it was a weekly feature (and why it started taking so damned long when it did start including cover songs): i’m a huge music fan, and in almost every case i have an obsessive fascination with the original, which leads me to go through this horrific Sophie’s Choice drama about every little flaw and if i can really give them up to the oppressive, fascist listening public.
So, rather than my still-incubating Trio, here’s a trio of quick-hit weblinks for you:
Plus, it totally jives with the holiday competition i have with my mother about buying farm animals for each other.
#2 PhotoJunkie’s “One Million Giveaway”. No, not a million dollars. PhotoJunkie is a fantastic blogger who was on the forefront of Photoblogging a few scant years ago. I think i know him from Blogathon (?). In any event, to celebrate his upcoming 1,000,000th website hit he’s giving away all sorts of stuff to anyone who comments on or links to his blog.
I should be seeing my millionth hit sometime before i turn 40, thanks for asking.
#3 Want a seasonal job in Philly? Be a newspaper scab! Our two big (collectively owned) papers are heading for strike, and they’re already fishing for temporary staff. $17-$20 an hour, 60hrs a week, minimal experience required. I say, go for it.
In closing, i feel that you should know that i am eating raw cookie-dough for dinner, and that after a content-lite day for T-Give i’ll be closing out NaBloPoMo with several more Trios and more NaBloPoMo site reviews.
Oh, right, and more blogging.
Edit: Every time i see the title of this post i hear the same thing in my head. In the interests of you hearing it too, here it is: Kelly Clarkson singing “Don’t Play That Song” from Season 1 of American Idol.
I take for granted that i have all this audio equipment, and microphone stands, and mixers, and, well, all the stuff i’ve accumulated over years of supplying equipment for Blogathon, Lyndzapalooza, and the Treblemakers. I take it for granted up until it’s the end of Lyndzapalooza and people are marvelling at all the equipment i have to pack or complimenting me on a job well done. I never feel like either is true, but i suppose the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Today was a very awesome Lyndzapalooza, that classic all-day musical party and barbecue -in honor of our one and only Lindsay- that has supplanted Blogathon as my major yearly holiday.
It truly is a holiday. I look forward to it all year, i get excited to the point of distraction when it’s upcoming, and i’m drained as soon as it’s over. And it’s not even a holiday about me! You could argue that it’s about me because i get up on stage and perform, but with every year that passes that becomes increasingly more incidental. Hell, today i ditched half of a meticulously planned setlist for Kelly Clarkson covers and bringing random friends onstage to sing with me. I’m not picky.
My true role at Lyndzapalooza is to be completely and totally unobtrusive – i shouldn’t get in the way of bands when setting up their sound, and when i’m playing for someone it should be all about them and not at all about me. That way, if i do eventually take the stage myself, i can be enjoyed or ignored as my own phenomenon rather than as “the sound guy we have to listen to.”
We sure have come a long way from the first year of scrounged equipment scattered across the yard of an abandoned house and microphones affixed to broomsticks. I’m happy to say that, despite a handful of desperately grumpy moments during the day, i left this ‘palooza stress-free and without regret. I played as good as i can play, i mixed as well as i can mix, and i still somehow managed to drink and socialize while i was doing it.
Mayyybe i need more of a sound reinforcement committee next year, though. Especially if we’re going to have it on a farm or a mountain rather than in Dante’s back yard.
In the subway they were all doppelgangers, or perhaps zombie invaders. Each one, be-suited or bedraggled per normal routine, but additionally distorted in a sort of post-holiday-euphoria crash. Not enough leftover cold turkey sandwiches and big ticket gifts to sustain the serotonin levels. Too many overzealous resolutions already dashed against the cold ground of winter.
I find myself subconsciously deferring to other people’s resolutions, as if by osmosis. (No, i will not eat that cookie if you won’t eat that cookie either.) Really, i think i am still too self-satisfied about keeping my 2004 resolution running to bother making any other ones.
In any event, i resolve things all the time. On one sleepless evening in seventh grade i resolved that starting the next day i would be incredibly attractive. So much so that i would be irresistible to all thirteen (and possibly fourteen) year old girls to cross my path. I attempted to plot my means of attracting them as i drifted off to sleep, but the next day i was the same, simple me.
I lose count of how many times in any given year i resolve to become more attractive, or more practiced, or more active – no need to artificially inflate the total so early on in the proceedings.
If only i could have fast-forwarded my frumpy seventh-grade clock forward a decade i would have realized that all that stood between me and the hearts of tweenagers everywhere were a few well-placed acoustic Kelly Clarkson cover songs.
