The first entry in our cover contest!

If you don't know, Piñataland is running a contest in which we challenge folks to cover our songs. Our first entry is from Alethea, who has clearly been indoctrinated into Piñataland by her father, Rob. Here is her version of an early tune from our Songs from Konijn Kok album (showing deep knowledge of our catalog for a three year old.)

Abraham Man Instrumental Version

Hey folks-

The first thing I posted on this blog was a song called Abraham Man which has been sitting patiently waiting for me to get around to finishing it. Well, don't hold your breath little song... My progress is glacial, but I think for the most part I'm done tracking instruments. The song is, I fully admit, jam-packed with lots of notes. To hear everything better I got rid of my crappy scratch vocal. (If you don't know "scratch" means that's it's a place holder that should get rerecorded before anyone, god forbid, hears it -- a rule I've been breaking liberally in this blog.) The result is kind of interesting so I thought I'd post it and get some feedback before trying to do the final vocals and mix it.

It's kind of the opposite of a successful pop song, which tends to be very simple instrumentation with a strong melody and rhythm with, these days, layered percussion tracks to provide rhythmic interest. I have only two percussion tracks, with neither defining a simple beat. The melody is kind of anemic (especially in this version, which doesn't have it at all) and the harmonies and countermelodies are all working very hard to fight with one another and take over the song. I think it's interesting but it's quite possibly something that no one else wants to hear. I've even thinned this one out already a little bit, cutting some viola and accordion and it's still mayhem.

I do love mayhem...

If you have time, give it a few listens. I'm interested in hearing how people hear it on first listen and if that changes as you listen to it more. Let me know what your ear gravitates to and if those focus points change in subsequent listens. Please be unforgiving and passionate in your criticism and suggestions. Or at least helpful.

dave

p.s. yeah, I know there's a few sour notes in the strings. I have to make my way through the takes to see if I can pull in a couple notes from elsewhere but for the most part these takes were pretty good. The song's in D#m (6 sharps!), a key in which I gather from Maria (who played both parts on this one) violins and violas do not feel at home.

Remember the Maine!

Ah, this is the first morning I've been able to sit out on my deck and have breakfast. Seems like spring is finally rolling around.

Been recording a lot but haven't had the chance to sort through it all. Recently did a violin session with Elizabeth Lindau of the band Canasta and a viola session with Maria McCullough who plays with Sones De Mexico and is currently in the House theater show Rose and the Rime. It's good stuff. We'll be doing a couple more sessions soon.

And, luckily, I may be having a real drummer play on some songs. One problem I've been having with this album is that I'm not a terribly good drum programmer and, as I'm planning on releasing this album for free, the idea of hiring a drummer and getting studio time to do it just doesn't make sense. So I've been cobbling together tracks from loops and added percussion. It's been OK, and in some cases works quite well, but I do miss having a real live drummer on some tunes. Luckily, my old drummer in the M.I.L.O. Collective ( a short-lived band of mine in Chicago who probably still has a myspace page though I haven't checked it or updated it in several years) who quit playing drums for a mysterious reason and who I lost touch with, has resurfaced and is playing drums again for some equally mysterious reason. Even better, he records in the same program I'm using and has a little studio set up so I can just send him tracks and he'll work his magic and send 'em back! Huzzah! (And if anyone out there does home recording and feels the urge to add tracks to a song, please do let me know and I'll send you stuff to add to. I can't promise I'll use it but I'm all for being surprised.)

Well, I suppose I should post some music this time around. Here's kind of an epic song about the Spanish American War which was written in response to us invading Iraq. There's quite a few similarities between the conflicts - the trumped up charges (evidence suggests that the Maine's boiler exploded, not that it was bombed), the complicity of the press in beating the war drum, the quick victory and the lengthy aftermath (though in the Spanish American War the aftermath largely played out in the Phillipines.)

This is one of those tracks that I cobbled together with drum loops both created and found. Some of it I like quite a bit and may keep in there in some form or another, but it does switch around in a confusing way. We'll see how Brad fares on replacing all/most this stuff with real drums.

Again, the usual disclaimers - not mixed, not final vocal probably, needs background vocals and some other stuff (like some real drums and real trumpets on there).

A Contest of Wits!

Hey folks-

Recording this past weekend went well, with violin added to Call of the Waters and Raise a Glass, and bass added to a couple songs not yet posted. This Wednesday I'll be recording some viola for Raise a Glass and hopefully have all the tracking done ('cause my computer is running out of space and processing power to play this stuff.) I'll have more audio to post soon but for now I wanted folks to be aware of the new Piñataland contest. The rules are simple

1) Record a cover of a Piñataland song. Audio, video, whatever. Recording quality doesn't matter. It doesn't necessarily have to be from one of our albums. Could be you just heard it live. We'll provide chords/lyrics to any songs on request.
2) Send us a copy of your version by the end of May.
3) We'll post all the entries on our website and facebook page.
4) The maker of our favorite version of one of our songs gets to come into the studio with us to help produce a track on the upcoming album.

It's really that simple. So don't be shy. And don't be afraid to make the song your own. As people who regularly change chords and/or lyrics when we cover songs (in evidence here and here) we're all for hearing different takes on our stuff.

cheers,
dave

Another Astronaut Waltz

Well, violin cancelled again today, but that's OK since now it's raining and we wouldn't be able to record anyway since the rain is so loud on the roof. Such are the hazards of home recording. For instance, I live in the flight path to the airport and it's harder to record without picking up airplane noises in the winter since sound travels farther in colder air. (On my last home recorded album there are a few times you can airplane noises in the background if you're listening on headphones, but I figured it was OK since it's an album about travel.)

Anyway, to today's post. Here's part 2 of the Astronaut Waltz series (part one, Velocity, was written in 1998 so we can expect part three by 2020.) Call of the Waters takes it's name from an affliction of sailors who would mysteriously cast themselves off their ships to drown. The same compulsion apparently also affects astronauts. Here's a description from the always handy Medical Emergencies in Space page from the Ohio chapter of the Mars Society.

In the days of sailing ships, physically sound young men would occasionally throw themselves from the boat and drown, overcome by fascination with the sea. This "Call of the Waters", as it was named, may have a latter-day equivalent in spaceflight. Just as some are compelled to stand on the edge of precipices or stare off bridges into the void below, some astronauts are fascinated by the free-falling view of space afforded by spacewalking. Valeri Ryumin's diary from his 1979 stay aboard Salyut-6 described his August 15 spacewalk: "You're out of your mind, I was telling myself - hanging on to a ship in space, and to your life, and getting ready to admire a sunset."

In fact, right from the start some spacewalkers have been reluctant to return to the safety of the ship. America's first spacewalker, Ed White, had to be ordered back into the capsule by Mission Control. When McDivitt had to tell him it was time to come back inside, White sighed, "It's the saddest moment of my life."

But this compulsion to stare into the void almost turned deadly for rookie cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko. During his 1977 stay on-board Salyut-6 with Georgi Grechko, a 20 December spacewalk was scheduled; Grechko would spacewalk, and Romanenko was to stay inside the airlock, monitoring medical readings. But Romanenko's curiosity got the better of him; he stuck his head out of the hatch, then drifted further and further out. When he started thrashing wildly, Grechko realized his friend's safety line wasn't attached, and Romanenko was drifting off into space! By leaning over as Romanenko drifted by, Grechko was able to grab hold of the safety line and pull him back in. Had Romanenko been further out, he would have drifted off and eventually suffocated.

Anyway, here's Call of the Waters. One day it'll have violin on it...