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Post by Jeff on Aug 24, 2006 16:40:23 GMT -5
I know that this doesn't mean as much for anyone else as it does for me, but I have to tell you: I would not have remembered this melody and the lyrics if Justin had not called me last night. Our conversation was strangely prescient of my recall. This was one of the deeper subjects we talked about. And I doubt that Justin would have called if he hadn't drunk that Heineken in his fridge. And he wouldn't have done that if he hadn't had his insight into a calorie based economy. And that wouldn't have happened if he hadn't mowed the lawn.
So, thanks for mowing yesterday, Justin!
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Post by Jeff on Aug 25, 2006 2:16:07 GMT -5
Never Cry (1984/9): www.zshare.net/audio/never-cry-mp3.htmlThis song is ancient. The recording comes from 1989, and is relatively well done; but I wrote the tune some time between 10/83 and 03/84. I was 13 or 14. My parents were still married. There are lyrics, but as you might guess, they sound worse than adolescent, are worse than unbearable for anyone whose voice has already changed. Actually, the lyrics were written for Rob Willard, whom I had just begun to get to know. Even then he seemed to be keeping so much inside. Too much, I thought. Still, here’s proof of the mind-bending banality of the lyrics: The Chorus: “Never cry Never bleed And never ever make-believe Never lead an innocent life Is the pain worth the sacrifice? Not to me" Fourteen, guys. I still remember how my friends would crowd around the piano in the vocal room when I was in 8th grade. We would sing it at the top of our lungs. (Parsons knows.) I wrote my first song when I was 8, so I had only been doing this sort of thing for few years when I wrote it. Even so, I had probably written 100 songs by the time I did this one, including the infamous Ode to a She Moose (1982) and my God song, Love is the Word (1981). This was the first drum programming that I ever did. I am sure that I would have left out the glass breaks if I had recorded this even two months later—though I still like the bottle choir despite the fact that I over used it. Oh, and here’s an interesting tidbit: The fade at the end of the song comes from me playing all the parts progressively softer instead of the usual slider work. I think this is the only time I ever tried that.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 25, 2006 2:32:19 GMT -5
Okay Jenn is telling me I need to do some real work and set this project aside for a while. She's right. When I pick it up again (maybe on Sunday?) I'll start with these four:
The Fear Peace of Mind Soul Touch Smoke
The Fear and Peace of Mind have 1 bomb warnings. Smoke is a 2 bomb song, Soul Touch a 3. Listening to those songs will be a true test of friendship, but there is worse to come. Eventually I have to mix down Peace in the Sky, which is nuclear.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 26, 2006 1:17:44 GMT -5
The Fear (1985/8): www.zshare.net/audio/the-fear-mp3.htmlHere is an anti-suicide song that I wrote in early 1985, after I had just turned 15. It’s the second oldest composition I've recorded. The lyrics are simple, but the message is still sound I think: Ultimately we shouldn’t kill ourselves because we aren’t smart/feeling enough to live in pain. Time will take it away. Just wait. The upshot is that a really feeling person might very well have a reason to kill themselves. Maybe. But when you get to that kind of depth, they generally also have a need a express themselves creatively. And this is usually enough to keep them breathing. Or so I’ve thought since I was about 15. This idea hasn’t always served me well, as I tend to be too dismissive of people who claim to be on the verge. Part of this comes from the days when Rick and I were on suicide watch for all our friends. That’s a hard role to play for so many for so long, especially when you know you don’t know the answers either. There are several mistakes in the recording both with the vocal and the bass line. I left them because I was using the vocal department’s 4 track and I wanted to finish this song before I had to turn it back in. BTW: I still remember writing this one in my mom’s new digs shortly after my parent’s divorce. It may be the first song I wrote wholly on our little Casio keyboard, which Jessica has now. Those things are built to last!
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Post by Jeff on Aug 26, 2006 14:03:41 GMT -5
[Here is another version of Melancholy with the vocal. In the last one the vocal was too loud, and it was not well integrated with the mix. The mix itself was too dynamically flat with too little bass. I try to fix all those problems here: www.zshare.net/audio/melancholyvoxbet-mp3.htmlJustin, I am really interested to see if you like the vocal. You thought this song was okay, right? Does the vocal detract? If so, that might explain why I forgot it.]
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Post by Jeff on Aug 26, 2006 18:45:20 GMT -5
Peace of Mind (1989): www.zshare.net/audio/peace-of-mind-mp3.htmlThis song suffers for being recorded entirely on the Siel DK70 and for having no real drum track. I added the drums after the recording using some Simmons pads that a friend of mine had. (I can’t remember his name as we only hung out the first semester and ½ that I was in school.)
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Post by Jeff on Aug 27, 2006 7:13:48 GMT -5
Soul Touch (1988): www.zshare.net/audio/soul-touch-mp3.htmlThis song could have been good, really good. I still think the chords are great, the changes interesting, and the melody pretty damn cool. Unfortunately this song winds up with 3 bombs, the worst I’ve posted so far. What went wrong? First, the DK70 is a nice keyboard for fuzzy analog flavor, but it cannot lay foundational sounds. It is especially weak in the bass register. This song had no drums to ground it. Rick and I beat on pots and pans in the original recording. I’ve added a new drum line for this mix, but the chords and melodies are essentially distinct from it. But the biggest problem with this song is that it is a fruity ode to chaste love. And it’s so much more dogmatic and stupid than Janet Jackson’s “Let’s Wait a While.” I can’t begin to tell you how painful it is to hear myself singing this shit. I can only imagine how painful it will be if you actually listen to it. So don’t. I’ve posted some other interesting things. Listen to those instead. This shit is why I need a producer, someone to say, "Uh, Jeff, that's a fuckin' lameass idea, dude." BTW: Rick, this is the song that you are in. Sorry it wasn't a better song.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 27, 2006 14:22:17 GMT -5
Smoke (1991): www.zshare.net/audio/smoke-mp3.htmlThis is not a song but an idea for one. Kevin Mason and I kept trying to find ways to record together. This one was the product of a weekend in the summer of ’91. We sat everything up in his apartment in King’s Landing, smoked a bunch of cigarettes, drank a lot of beer, and recorded this piece (of…). The problem is that we both wanted completely different things. Kevin knew cool. He knew what sounds other people would like, and he wanted to write music they would dance to. Nothing wrong with that. I had definite ideas about what I liked: oboes, strings, pianos, and I knew that I didn’t like: dance music, the Stones, and formless jamming. We never worked out any kind of compromise. And, to be honest, our attempts at compromise were pretty dismal. I’ve cut this one pretty short--I shaved off 1 1/2 minutes--for your gastrointestinal safety. I guess the reason I’ve never treated it as a rarity is because Kevin and I had such an iconic moment making it. I still remember the sun coming up and streaming through the window of his smoke filled apartment. Though this song never really had a name, that's how I named it for myself.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 27, 2006 14:36:06 GMT -5
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Post by Jeff on Aug 27, 2006 15:29:57 GMT -5
Here is the next set of songs with Bomb Scare Warnings:
Sleeping Alone Among Friends (1 Bomb) Silent Prayer Should I Fall Runaway (3 Bombs) Little Candle (2 Bombs) The Words (4 Bombs) Anymore (4 Bombs)
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Post by Jeff on Aug 27, 2006 22:12:02 GMT -5
Sleeping Alone (1990): www.zshare.net/audio/sleepingalone-mp3.htmlThis song isn’t very good, but it is very loud! It was the first thing that I wrote after I got my Korg M1 during the summer of 1990, and really this song is just an exploration of its onboard sounds. I think I stole all the progressions from songs I was listening to that week.* I wrote and recorded the whole thing in one evening while Rick, Jason, and Jon played cards and got trashed. That was the summer we lived in my mom’s house all on our own. (Story for another day.) I just loved the M1. I still have it, and it still plays just about like it used to. I play really hard on my keyboards. Right now, the high B flat on the M1 is broken. I’ve had the lid off and the guts out twice, but I just can’t seem to fix it. I need a new key. Anyone know where to pick one up? Oh, there were lyrics to this, but unless they serendipitously pop into my head I can’t say that I remember much about them other than they were about being alone at night. *All but one. I had been working out the verse for several days prior to recording.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 28, 2006 4:12:07 GMT -5
Among Friends (1991): www.zshare.net/audio/amongfriends-mp3.htmlThis was another song that I recorded during the summer of 1991 at Kevin’s apartment. Again, he came up with the basic idea, the piano run on the verse, and I fleshed out the rest. My best work on this was the bassline, which is serviceable. But overall, this song just sucks. It is difficult to really try at something and still fail so miserably. I cut about two minutes off this song to keep from trying your patience.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 28, 2006 23:44:05 GMT -5
My Audio Technica ATH-M40fs ( www.zzounds.com/item--AUTATHM40FS) cans died on me about a month ago. I didn't want to shell out for a new pair because they caused me to put way too much bass in all my mixes. At the same time, I was growing sort of used to their frequency response and coloring. So, I bought a pair of Yamaha RH-5Ma ( www.zzounds.com/item--YAMRH5MA) phones--and a new soldering iron to fix the ATs. Frankly, though they are a semi-open design (which I don't like) they give better frequency response than the ATH-M40fs. Now, I NEVER get to use my monitors, which sucks since they are awesome (NHT Pro A-10s emusician.com/speakers/emusic_nhtpro/), so everything I mis and master is done on headphones. And the problem I am having with the RH-5Mas is that I am used to subtracting a whole lot of bass from what I think sounds right to get a good mix. But I don't need to do that anymore! The upshot is that all the mixes I've done so far have too much treble. That's a new problem for me. The fix is to rotate your bass knob to taste. Sorry guys.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 29, 2006 0:24:36 GMT -5
Runaway (1989): www.zshare.net/audio/runaway-mp3-4v5.htmlWhen I was 19 I thought this was the best song on Harbinger. It's mainly the lyrics that sink it...that and my singing. Of course the DK70 is on display here, yet again. This time, I really worked to get a heavy bass sound, but one that didn't overpower the lyric. If you hear Bon Jovi singing in the background...well, he's definitely there.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 29, 2006 3:02:37 GMT -5
Little Candle (1990): www.zshare.net/audio/littlecandle-mp3.htmlNo one really likes this song but me. Yesterday I posted Sleeping Alone, which was a celebration of the sounds on the M1. This song celebrates my other keyboard, the Yamaha DX7*. It’s venerable these days. A strictly mono synth, it was made for 4-tracking. And it is fully programmable FM synthesis. Whereas the M1 carries lots of samples that you can manipulate in various ways, the DX7 generates its own sounds. I learned everything I know about synthesis directly from this board. It took me about 1 and ½ years to master it. So, I still have a soft spot for these sounds. *Nice DX7 site: www.thedx7.co.uk/ (I did the battery change operation on my synth last spring.)
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Post by Jeff on Aug 31, 2006 1:40:22 GMT -5
Should I Fall (1990): www.sharelor.com/show.php/1944_ShouldIFall.mp3.htmlI couldn’t get zshare to work tonight, so I went with this service. Tell me if you have a preference. About the song: I can’t remember any of the lyrics, but I do know where the dopey title comes from. It’s meant to be a song like the Beatles When I’m Sixty-four. Something like, “Will you pick me up should I fall?” But the “should I fall” bit is ambiguous, of course. So, the idea is that the narrator is asking this question at the beginning of the relationship with the further implication that it’s this kind of thing that matters more than good looks or upward mobility. But, again, I can’t remember any of the actual lyrics. It could be that they were never in any kind of final form. Just an idea.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 31, 2006 10:04:55 GMT -5
Silent Prayer (1990): www.sharelor.com/show.php/1966_SilentPrayer.mp3.htmlOR: www.youpload.com/files/general/515fbdab0c/silentprayer_mp3_.htm (Which do you prefer?) Zshare.net may be permanently offline. Alas. When you first arrive at college the Westminster Chime is a mark of distinction: You’ve made it to the bigs. After you realize that you are attending a fifth rate public university you might still find it comforting, but it begins to ring in your dreams. By the time you are in your fifth year at the fifth rate university you are ready to take a gun to the bell tower and shoot the bell. Permutations of those eight notes crop up more times in my music than references to jilted love. Here they are most obvious.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 31, 2006 16:07:31 GMT -5
The Words (1989): www.zshare.net/audio/the-words-mp3.htmlNo one who has ever heard this song has liked it. But I can tell you that this was one of the two songs that I recorded that took the most thought and planning before tracking. (The other was Vanquished.) It would have helped to have actually scored the piece in advance. It may not seem like it, but the rhythms and the modulations are complex, at least for my little 19/20 year old brain. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, the song just doesn’t engage, or when it does it is on a level no one has ever seemed to like. There are a complete set of lyrics to this one, which I could sing today if I wanted to. But I would be too embarrassed.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 31, 2006 18:12:02 GMT -5
Anymore (1990): www.zshare.net/audio/anymore-mp3.htmlWe now come to what is in my opinion the worst song on Baroquen Record, “Anymore.” I recorded two versions of it, one with and one without the simulated sax. If you can believe it, the one with the DX7 Sax is better. This song is Gawdawful. Don’t listen to it.
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Post by Jeff on Aug 31, 2006 18:17:23 GMT -5
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