As kids

A short instrumental, played over an old tape of me reading something in French as a kid.

Doing this felt very nostalgic, both because it was me as a kid and because I so rarely play audio cassettes.

I have no idea what it is I'm reading!

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by ORthey (20 comments total)

Really, really cool. Is that the fist-against-the-desk drum?
posted by micayetoca at 5:50 AM on January 10

Thanks, micayetoca. You're right again... I think it may be time to get myself a real drum kit! Or at least use some electronic beats.
posted by ORthey at 9:08 AM on January 10

You have really captured a great mood there, lovely. **reaches for a tissue**
posted by haunted by Leonard Cohen at 10:12 AM on January 10

I like this a lot.
posted by danb at 11:52 AM on January 10

Nooo, not at all. It sounds great, and actually when I heard it in N'entre pas I thought it was a drum machine (played by hand, not programmed).

You really did manage to get a different general "feel" in this one. Congrats man.
posted by micayetoca at 2:05 PM on January 10

nice. really wonderful.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:10 PM on January 10

ORthey, thank you.
posted by snsranch at 6:59 PM on January 10

Something about a chief in pyjamas?
My favourite thing is the sound when you turn the mic on and off...I had the same kind of deal as a kid; I think you turned the "off" switch on the mic and it actually put the tape recorder in standby until you turned it back on, so you get these kind of lurches in sound as the tape gets back up to speed. Very nice. Kind of the audio equivalent of jump-cuts in super8 film, in a nostagic-y way.

God, I am going to have to dig out my old BASF cassettes of crank phonecalls we did in the 70's.
posted by chococat at 8:22 PM on January 10

Very pretty. It does have a kind of cinematic, nostalgic feeling to me.
posted by edlundart at 9:01 PM on January 10

This was really cool, thanks.
posted by !Jim at 9:15 PM on January 10

It feels like a scene in a movie. Very nice.
posted by Corduroy at 6:04 AM on January 11

Thanks everyone!

Chococat, I also love the little lurches. They happen right after I mess up reading a word... my mom was a university French professor and would tape me and my sister reading or telling stories and bring them into her phonetics classes for her students. We probably have twenty tapes full of this stuff!
posted by ORthey at 9:25 AM on January 11

That's funny. Similarly, my mom was a Family Studies teacher and when my sister and I were kids she taped us reading that Baby skit from Free to be You and Me and would play it every year for her class. I think she was still playing it into the '80's when I ended up at that high school, but mercifully I was spared the humiliation of sitting through it with my teenaged friends.
posted by chococat at 12:12 PM on January 11

I like this a lot. Before I even read edlundart and Corduroy's comments, it struck me as either the music accompanying the opening credits or the closing credits of a film I'd like to see.

Thanks for the banjo jam invite--I'd love to, except that I only have access to a banjo when I'm out-of-town at my parents' house and can use my mom's. I'm going to sign up to the Mefi music collaborator's website when I have a minute.
posted by umbú at 7:22 PM on January 11

Hey, funny, you had such a fine French then...(kidding) - real nice patchwork. Wonderful guitar and sound. Thank you.
posted by nicolin at 12:27 PM on January 14

you horrible horrible person.
A+
posted by es_de_bah at 11:09 AM on January 16

you horrible horrible person.
A+

Thanks?
posted by ORthey at 11:43 AM on January 16

This is endearing. I dig the instrumental behind it. It's sweet and cinematic. Great work ORthey!
posted by edverb at 8:07 AM on January 19

Exactly what edverb said. I was trying to figure out how to describe my opinion of the song and I saw that and though "Oh yeah, uh that. That's it exactly."
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 11:38 PM on January 19

What chococat said about the boss in pajamas and what haunted... said about reaching for the tissues. Wonderful stuff.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:35 PM on January 20