Avery Island (Cover)

I stumbled across this wonderful instrumental on Neutral Milk Hotel's Avery Island today, and came up with an idea.

I recorded the song onto Garageband by just playing it through the computer speakers, added some simple drums, and then sang some lyrics I had been using in a song that is kind of stuck.

Always believe, always believe in you.
I'll always believe in you;
Your sticks and your stones.

Always thinking, always thinking of you,
Always thinking of you like snow:
you come and you go.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by Corduroy (6 comments total)

On second thought, as I'm listening to this again several hours later and wiser, the vocals are really somewhat weak and I should probably have taken a little more time in figuring out the melody exactly. I also want to do something more with the beat, I just don't know what. Perhaps there really should be no vocals, and just some more work on the instrumentals.
posted by Corduroy at 8:01 PM on June 19

And jeez, I just realized that the song after this one, Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone, uses the same trumpet line towards the end. Damn it, I give up.
posted by Corduroy at 12:17 AM on June 20

Aw, don't give up. It definitely benefits from the vocals.
posted by nthdegx at 2:25 AM on June 20

Heh, like nthdegx said, don't give up. This is actually a great idea. I've written some songs this way (although usually the song is playing in my head and I deconstruct it while coming up with mine, but sometimes I'll just play something on top of another song or sample and take it out of the mix later). I think this is a good start for something, so keep at it. You could also try reversing the recorded track from NMH and playing along/singing to that to see what happens. Or cutting up the melody so that it becomes another and playing to that. Just a thought.

If this experiment has helped you in moving the song along, then it's never a bad thing.
posted by sleepy pete at 10:32 AM on June 20

I've written some songs this way

Same here. Another thing I have done is that I try to figure out a song in the guitar and I end up with a riff that sounds nothing like the song I'm trying to learn, but becomes a song itself.

So yeah, great idea, keep playing with it. You'll get to something that satisfies you more.
posted by micayetoca at 8:51 AM on June 23

Thanks for the comments. I have to keep in mind what sleepy pete said in his last line. It's very true.
posted by Corduroy at 7:08 PM on June 23