Sunday, November 10, 2013

(I Couldn't) Keep Taylor Swift Happy


Time for an original. This one is admittedly quite goofy, inspired by pop music exposure over the past few years and imagining singers might actually be like their personas.  I'm not sure if this song will go anywhere, if so it'll probably need a re-recording from scratch-- this was done on two tracks, with the vocals needing several takes. Actually the vocals probably still need several more takes, and it could stand to be mixed better. And it maybe should just be the first verse alone.  But we are where we are.

So with no further ado: (I Couldn't) Keep Taylor Swift Happy

Saturday, November 2, 2013

A questionable tribute to Lou Reed

It's been a busy month but I hope to get back to some music in a (slightly) slower patch between now and late January. However, I would be remiss not to commemorate Lou Reed's passing somehow. I admit to only a passing knowledge of his music outside of the "hits", though he touched the lives of many of the musicians I hold in esteem. REM's Dead Letter Office, which I bought in '87 when it came out, featured 3 Velvet Underground songs, serving as my gateway, and the band did other VU songs at concerts I attended.

And my college band, Dr. Lüst and the Chiefs of the European Space Agency, did a VU song as a major part of our sets early on: White Light/White Heat was how we'd end our sets, with Doug the instigator and singer. He was a big David Bowie fan, and our version was based on Bowie's (inasmuch as it was based on anything). I just liked the "flip out on G7" at the end. After a year or so it dropped out of the sets as our repertoire evolved (or something).  I include below a version we did one night at WMBR when our friend got us access to the studios for some recording in 1990. We'd tacked it on to a band intro song called "Dr. Lüst on Safari", which I excised and from which faded in.  For the curious, I'm on drums in this band.

For the second song I decided I'd just record Sweet Jane, my favorite of Reed's, cliched choice or not. On Twitter I called it an "indestructible song" and there's no better way to test that than have me play it...

Once again:

White Light/White Heat (Dr. Lüst)
Sweet Jane (solo acoustic!)