Still

Musically I was aiming for Sondre Lerche. Lyrically, I was fresh off the experience of walking around the East Village, popping in to various music venues, and continually being the oldest, most boring guy in the room.

Recorded on a Zoom H2 with my Taylor guitar. I wish I was a better singer and whistler.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by fingers_of_fire (7 comments total)

I hear a bit of early Randy Newman in this. Sounds very New York to me. I imagine this playing over the opening montage of an early 90s Tom Hanks vehicle with lots of exterior shots of New York in the morning.
posted by dobie at 11:32 AM on July 10

That's a good comment by dobie! I totally hear the same thing, maybe even a hint of Elvis Costello. And I get the Sondre Lerche vibe too. The singing is pretty nice in places, very pitchy in others. Still, this is plenty charming.
posted by edlundart at 3:50 PM on July 10

Nice jazzy chord progression, seconding edlundart on the idea that a few more vocal takes could do wonders to this. My other suggestion is to maybe switch up what you're doing with your right hand a bit more - it's kind of chop chop chop all the way through and some different picking rhythms could bring out those cool chords more.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 4:18 PM on July 10

Love the progression and didn't mind the vocals, but I agree with arcanecrowbar about the rhthm guitar. It doesn't have to be much, but something to break up those quarter notes every so often would be very welcome.

Great stuff, though!
posted by danb at 4:56 PM on July 10

Thanks, this has a great cohesive feel. You're a little flat in places, but other than that, very well executed.
posted by phrontist at 12:22 PM on July 11

Great comeback, fingers_of_fire. You've got a nice song in there. And this is the third song posted here that was recorded with the Zoom H2 (there's one by baby_balrog and one by sleepy pete that I know of), it's a great toy, isn't it?
posted by micayetoca at 8:50 PM on July 12

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

This is very much only a demo that I simply wanted to record as soon as possible after writing it in order to remember it (also 'cuz my H2 is new, and I wanted to use it!). Afterwards, I was quite taken with the song, if I do say so myself, and since I won't have the opportunity to perform or record it more thoroughly for some time, I decided to post it. Also, as micayetoca intimates, I've been a little absent from these parts lately, so I wanted to show my face a bit.

By way of response - ultimately, I think it'll have an upright bass and drums behind it (playing brushes, of course). Stylistically, I think the guitar parts on tunes like this are typically 4 to the bar (see: Freddie Green), although maybe having the bass and drums in there is necessary to keep the rhythm interesting.

As for the singing, well - bleah. As I said, I wish I was better. If/when I get it to a final final final condition, I'll work more on the vocals, both in person and digitally, if necessary.
posted by fingers_of_fire at 9:20 PM on July 14