Treehouse

For the MeFi Music Challenge: Here is a happy little song about insects for the education and edification of children.

I hope that boys and girls across the nation will enjoy this cheerful and jolly tune, listening to it over and over and allowing its moral message to take root in their tiny, wrinkled brains.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by Karlos the Jackal (8 comments total)

Wow, lovely song, Karlos. Did you change recording gear recently? it sounds very well recorded.
posted by micayetoca at 5:22 AM on August 29, 2008

I came back because I don't think I was effusive enough in that first comment, I really liked this song. I even had to write it down to see how the rhymes were paired, because the way the rhymes are put together (I know, I'm stating the obvious here) give it that special rhythm. Very interesting. Did you develop the melody out of the words? Did they "came" at the same time?
posted by micayetoca at 6:29 AM on August 29, 2008

I agree the rhyme scheme compliments the thumping, folkloric [sic?] rhythm perfectly. I especially enjoyed how you wrung some po-faced humour out of the little coda at the end of each section, e.g. 'but mostly on the face'.
posted by RokkitNite at 9:46 AM on August 29, 2008

This is grand and dramatic in the best way. I love your autoharp - a sound I associate with you on MeMu.
posted by ORthey at 3:18 PM on August 29, 2008

Did you change recording gear recently?

No, but I did get a new mic -- a Copperphone, which has a deliberate old-timey sound that I like a lot and am in tremendous danger of overusing. I used it for all the vocal tracks here (and on my last song).

Did you develop the melody out of the words?

Actually, the words have been kicking around for awhile -- originally they were for a different tune altogether, a twee little major key number, but it was just a throwaway and I never recorded it.

Recently I repurposed the music portion to use as a "seed track" for the still-ongoing (!) Exquisite Corpse MeFiMu project.

I figured I'd never use the words again, but then along came this month's challenge. I still wasn't really planning on doing anything with them, but then a couple of days ago I came across this AskMe post about Brutalist Architecture. I was inspired by that post to play the autoharp in right-angled slabs rather than in my usual scuffling jangle.

I decided to try it with these words, but didn't want to end up, by habit, singing the old melody; therefore, I switched to a minor key because that forced the old melody out of my head and suggested this new one. And it sorta ended up sounding like, as my wife says, "Stalin's favorite lullaby."

I recorded it immediately after working out the chords and posted it here that evening, which is by far my fastest turnaround ever.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 3:02 AM on August 30, 2008

I love the background vocals too. It sounds like something out a Viking movie scored by Goblin.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:49 AM on August 30, 2008

That Copperphone looks enviable. You are lucky we don't live in the same city because you would have problems getting me out of your house, I can't believe all the little -and big!- things you have for making noise.
posted by micayetoca at 7:14 AM on August 30, 2008

A welcome addition to the bug set. Nice instrumentation.
posted by AppleSeed at 6:38 PM on September 5, 2008