So a few posts ago I went through a bunch of songs I recorded over the years. I linked them to my kiwi account, but I might have to switch them over to Soundcloud since some of them don't work no more. But I digress... the real reason for this post is to talk about some fun i've had recording over the past 6ish months.
So earlier this year I got the recording bug. I love recording for several reasons:
- Forces me to learn new songs, and it helps make practice fun and productive.
- Its a great creative outlet (whether its a cover or an original... I always put my own spin on it)
- I love editing... sometimes it makes it so I sound decent!
- I'm usually pretty shy about playing in front of others, this way I can share my songs without being nervous!
- Gives me a chance to play with my toys and gives me an excuse to buy more! (I heart my new synthesizer)
Ok, I wont begin this section with "So"... but here's the part where I catalog my recent recordings. I was at a pace of about 1 every other week for a little bit :) Each song takes anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours to put together... i'm sure you can tell which songs were quick projects!
So here's the link where you can listen to all my songs instead of clicking on each link below
The Beatles: What can I say... I learned guitar by playing Beatles songs, each phase of their career brought something fun and fresh that will always feel timeless:
I'll Be Back: -Not Terminator 2, Another amazing harmony-centric song. One of my favs
Oh Darling! -Yup, went all out for this one :D It's slightly awkward, and all awesome!
Tell Me Why - I'm a dork, remind myself of Andy Bernard's recording where he harmonized with himself B) Also... how bout' my John Lennon? hehe
This Boy - Under-rated early Beatles song. Again, had fun with the harmonies, especially the end!
Yer Blues - See comment for Oh Darling! "James Harrington sings the blues" Had a TON of fun recording this one :D
For No One: -This song isn't for you
Coldplay:
Amsterdam And I thought Yer Blues and Oh Darling were vocally challenging for a bass. Chris Martin has a huge range! This one was one of my more complicated arrangements...got some pretty sweet guitars effect. I love the end of this one, the organ was a blast to play!
The Cure: Robert Smith is a genious. Our band has played Just Like Heaven and Friday I'm in Love a million times so I decided to try Boys Don't Cry. Loved it, though my voice is a little whiney... oh well, I won't cry over it.
Boys Don't Cry
Just Like Heaven
The White Stripes: I have an electric guitar... this needed to happen. My most recent recording. Loved making a bazzillion tracks for this one.
Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground
Fleetwood Mac: We played this song for my dad's 60th B-day party this past January. My voice doesn't suit it nearly as well as my mom, but as Ryan Adams gave it a shot, I figured a dude could sing this song too :)
Dreams
Fountains of Wayne: Long live power-pop! I love these fellas. Their songs always have catchy hooks from which great "slice of life" storytelling perfectly suits the tunes.
Hackensack
Hey Julie
Valley Winter Song
Ben Kweller:
I'm on My Way I saw this dude a few months back and he inspired me to learn a few of his tunes. I think this is a perfect folk song. The lyrical progression is so simple and perfect. It was fun to sing along with a simple guitar part. I believe I didn't have multiples tracks and did most of this song in one take...
The Strokes:
I'll Try anything Once This song came out on my mission and I didn't find it till way late. I don't play piano besides picking out songs by ear... so I was messing around on my folks piano and I figured out the riff to this song and thought it sounded kind of cool on piano instead of the guitar so I had to record it then and there!
Third Eye Blind:
Hows It Gonna Be I had a ton of fun recording this one. Its the pinnical of mid 90's alt-rock and holds up really well even now. As I listened to it a few times to learn it, I realized that it was fairly complex, especially the way he sings it. As such, I had fun trying to sing in a totally different style then i'm used to. Also was fun to create some harmonies at the end... skip to that part, its fun!
Ryan Adams:
Lucky Now This was the first of the new recordings... pretty much since college with a few original songs as an exception, I hadn't recorded in years. I heard this song and I wanted to share it with everyone. Ryan Adams' voice is so good, its not fair! :) Also, no more auto-tune for me. I kind of want to redo this one and flesh it out with organ.
The Foo Fighters:
Big Me The first Foo Fighters song I ever heard... loved it, including its amazing mentoos parady music video. Sounds pretty good in a stripped down version.
Thanks for listening... I'd love suggestions as always for songs for my next recording!
Friday, September 28, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Je voudrais un croissant
Bonjour friends, its time for a bit of a travelogue... I know I know, my last post about the 25 greatest songs since 1995 begs for a follow-up for the greatest songs before 1995 (and possible tweaking to the previous list?). All in due time. For now though, we face our attention to our friends across the pond in France.
Though born in New York, I had the good fortune to live overseas for six years... 3 in the South of France and 3 in Tokyo. We'll get into Tokyo some other time, for today's topic is about my family vacation visiting where I spent the end of my terrible two's through the beginning of age 5: a little town in the South of France called Saint Jeannet.
Since I was a lil' guy, I only have a few memories of back then, so it was nice to go back with my family and be reminded of those good days. (This blog functions as a journal of sorts for me... please don't think of it as bragging... think of it more as a way to share, and remember, some of my joys. Here's a summary of all we did:
Day 1: Landed in Paris in the morning, walked around the general vicinity of our hotel as it wasn't ready yet. The hotel was adjacent to its namesake, the Louvre, so there was a lot to see within a short walking distance. As it was a Sunday, we figured we aughta be righteous-n-such, so we visited Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle and saw some beautiful stain glass. We then checked into our hotel and checked out for nap. We got up and had dinner at a nice restaurant on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees (had some steak frites! (i love there's an article for that)) Then we went for a tour around the city on the Bateau Mouche... beautiful to see the city at night, Not bad for day 1 eh?
Day 2: Spent the morning at the Louvre... wish we could have spent several days there, but we were able to take in a lot of great stuff. The Embrace some Delecroix action, Winged Victory... and a whole lot more. We then took a bus out to Fontainebleau. This was the palace before Versailles, though it functioned as somewhat of a summer home after Versailles was built. It was most extravagant, with beautiful gardens, and a gorgeous library! Since it was built in medieval times and added upon all by all the royalty and through Napoleon, it had an identity crisis which was cool since it demonstrated a great variety of styles (unlike Versailles which only functioned through one age). After we got back to Paris, we went walked on le Champs d'Elysee had diner inside the nicest restaurant i've ever been to: Le Fouquet (had some roast chicken dish, yum) The service was off the charts good just like the food. We then made our way up to L'Arc de Triumph.
Day 3: Spent the morning through the early afternoon at le Musee D'Orsay and saw some beautiful impressionist paintings, had lunch there in the grande salon (Penne w/ sausage... yum again!) We then had fun on the subways finding our way out to Chateau Vincennes and finally up to Montmartre at Sacre Coeur which overlooked the city.
Day 4: Took a short plane ride down to Nice. We wasted no time and travelled a short distance to Saint Jeannet (the town we lived in). Took our time and hiked the Baous (a mountain which we used to hike many times as we could walk to the trail from our house.) It was a beautiful hike that overlooked a lot of the countryside. We then payed a quick visit to the old house and walked through the small town. Ou hotel for the next few days was in Vence, so we ate at a nice outdoor restaurant there...
Day 5: Started out by going to the perfume factory "Fragonnard" where we had a quick tour and bought some soaps, perfumes and various scented goods. It was fun to hear about the profession of "Le Nez" or "The Nose" whose schooling and career taught him to identify over 3000 distinct scents and mixtures! Also, I went there a bazzillion times as a kid whenever we had visitors from the states and i actually could remember this factory! We then went to St. Paul de Vence which was very pretty (also, did I mention, the weather was pretty much sunny our whole trip!) We then drove down to Monte Carlo where we walked up to the palace, and had a fantastic diner (i got "Daube de boeuf"which was a local beef stew... yum!) by the glitzy casino's.
Day 6: Started out by walking through the flower market in Nice. Since we had been running around for the past 5 days, it was great to have a relaxing beach day on the Riviera! After some relaxation time, we went to our old store Carrefour (actually kind of like a mega Target of sorts) and got a whole bunch of food (pastries, chocolate, baguettes, Yops, Orangina, chicken etc.) for a picnic diner we ate outside our hotel.
Day 7: After a restful day, we had the energy to tackle Cannes. We went on a boat to the island of Ste. Marguerite and visited the fortress where "the man in the iron mask" was imprisoned. We explored the island for a few hours and then went back across the water to do a walking tour of Cannes. That evening we had diner at another outdoor place in Vence (the ice cream sundae i had for dessert was probably the best i've ever had!)
I've uploaded a lot of pictures of the trip on facebook, thats probably better than anything i described above.
We packed a lot into those 7 days, what a fun trip! :D
PS: bytheway, I think we went to local boulangeries almost every day for some fresh baguettes, croissants and pain au chocolate... a highlight that needed to be included!
Though born in New York, I had the good fortune to live overseas for six years... 3 in the South of France and 3 in Tokyo. We'll get into Tokyo some other time, for today's topic is about my family vacation visiting where I spent the end of my terrible two's through the beginning of age 5: a little town in the South of France called Saint Jeannet.
Since I was a lil' guy, I only have a few memories of back then, so it was nice to go back with my family and be reminded of those good days. (This blog functions as a journal of sorts for me... please don't think of it as bragging... think of it more as a way to share, and remember, some of my joys. Here's a summary of all we did:
Day 1: Landed in Paris in the morning, walked around the general vicinity of our hotel as it wasn't ready yet. The hotel was adjacent to its namesake, the Louvre, so there was a lot to see within a short walking distance. As it was a Sunday, we figured we aughta be righteous-n-such, so we visited Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle and saw some beautiful stain glass. We then checked into our hotel and checked out for nap. We got up and had dinner at a nice restaurant on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees (had some steak frites! (i love there's an article for that)) Then we went for a tour around the city on the Bateau Mouche... beautiful to see the city at night, Not bad for day 1 eh?
Day 2: Spent the morning at the Louvre... wish we could have spent several days there, but we were able to take in a lot of great stuff. The Embrace some Delecroix action, Winged Victory... and a whole lot more. We then took a bus out to Fontainebleau. This was the palace before Versailles, though it functioned as somewhat of a summer home after Versailles was built. It was most extravagant, with beautiful gardens, and a gorgeous library! Since it was built in medieval times and added upon all by all the royalty and through Napoleon, it had an identity crisis which was cool since it demonstrated a great variety of styles (unlike Versailles which only functioned through one age). After we got back to Paris, we went walked on le Champs d'Elysee had diner inside the nicest restaurant i've ever been to: Le Fouquet (had some roast chicken dish, yum) The service was off the charts good just like the food. We then made our way up to L'Arc de Triumph.
Day 3: Spent the morning through the early afternoon at le Musee D'Orsay and saw some beautiful impressionist paintings, had lunch there in the grande salon (Penne w/ sausage... yum again!) We then had fun on the subways finding our way out to Chateau Vincennes and finally up to Montmartre at Sacre Coeur which overlooked the city.
Day 4: Took a short plane ride down to Nice. We wasted no time and travelled a short distance to Saint Jeannet (the town we lived in). Took our time and hiked the Baous (a mountain which we used to hike many times as we could walk to the trail from our house.) It was a beautiful hike that overlooked a lot of the countryside. We then payed a quick visit to the old house and walked through the small town. Ou hotel for the next few days was in Vence, so we ate at a nice outdoor restaurant there...
Day 5: Started out by going to the perfume factory "Fragonnard" where we had a quick tour and bought some soaps, perfumes and various scented goods. It was fun to hear about the profession of "Le Nez" or "The Nose" whose schooling and career taught him to identify over 3000 distinct scents and mixtures! Also, I went there a bazzillion times as a kid whenever we had visitors from the states and i actually could remember this factory! We then went to St. Paul de Vence which was very pretty (also, did I mention, the weather was pretty much sunny our whole trip!) We then drove down to Monte Carlo where we walked up to the palace, and had a fantastic diner (i got "Daube de boeuf"which was a local beef stew... yum!) by the glitzy casino's.
Day 6: Started out by walking through the flower market in Nice. Since we had been running around for the past 5 days, it was great to have a relaxing beach day on the Riviera! After some relaxation time, we went to our old store Carrefour (actually kind of like a mega Target of sorts) and got a whole bunch of food (pastries, chocolate, baguettes, Yops, Orangina, chicken etc.) for a picnic diner we ate outside our hotel.
Day 7: After a restful day, we had the energy to tackle Cannes. We went on a boat to the island of Ste. Marguerite and visited the fortress where "the man in the iron mask" was imprisoned. We explored the island for a few hours and then went back across the water to do a walking tour of Cannes. That evening we had diner at another outdoor place in Vence (the ice cream sundae i had for dessert was probably the best i've ever had!)
I've uploaded a lot of pictures of the trip on facebook, thats probably better than anything i described above.
We packed a lot into those 7 days, what a fun trip! :D
PS: bytheway, I think we went to local boulangeries almost every day for some fresh baguettes, croissants and pain au chocolate... a highlight that needed to be included!
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