Purepechazz

a demo.

New song, largely unfinished. I recently moved and all of my stuff is still "in transit" so I only have an acoustic guitar and I recorded it in a laptop, so there's not much I could do in terms of arrangements, and the quality is not the best. I guess I could wait until I had more instruments at hand or until I had my portastudio, but I didn't want to "leave" the site for too long.

The title is in reference to the Purepecha because the first bit is based in their Pirekuas, (their traditional songs), the other word in the pun is, obviously Jazz.

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

Not that this recording isn't charming in its own lofi way, but I'd love to a hear a clean retake of it when you've got a chance to do so.

The stereo crawl of that percussion in the B part? <3
posted by cortex at 9:08 AM on September 30, 2008

Hey, micayetoca!!!123 You know, I understand about your stuff being in transit, but I kicked up the mids just a little and played this really loudly in my back yard, and it KICKED ASS!

("kicked ass" meaning that it was so beautifully pleasant, I was able to do my chores without complaint.) And that's saying a lot!
posted by snsranch at 7:08 PM on September 30, 2008

That guitar is really catchy and smoov. The vocals are charming. Good stuff!

What's that percussion at :50? Are you just rapping on a desk or something?

Somehow this reminds me of Peanuts cartoons; I've no idea why.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 2:52 AM on October 1, 2008

So great. I really love this.

Somehow this reminds me of Peanuts cartoons; I've no idea why.

Because it has that 1965 jazz crossover sensibility to it, in spades.
It's like you've channeled Gilberto and Brubeck but just stopped short of Sergio Mendes, all the while still sounding like you. Awesome.
posted by chococat at 8:41 PM on October 2, 2008

Yeah, I love this, as you know. The percussion in the second part is wonderful, as cortex said, but I'm still trying to figure out what the vocal part reminds me of. It's not a "Hey, you totally stole this from..." thing, it's just bugging the hell out of me. It's kind of like the first few bars of "Summer Song" by Chad & Jeremy (which, by the way, ties into cortex's song "88 Lines about 44 MeFites" that is based on this song by The Nails, but don't favorite it, we don't need him getting as big a head a his donuts). Maybe that's it. That's a lovely melody no matter what. I really love the play you have in the stereo field as well.

Oh man, after reading chococat's comment, I realized that he's right about the era of jazz that it reminds me of right now. It really reminds me of "Skating in Central Park" by the Modern Jazz Quartet, from this album that I long ago got rid of or someone stole (although, that's not the album cover I had). That's the best song on that soundtrack/album, by the way, so don't run off to buy it. The MJQ is pretty wonderful on other pieces... OK, rambling.

What a wonderful song, micayetoca. If you're still writing it, don't listen to anything I linked! It has a great feel and sense of play about it. I really love it and I'm glad I stopped here to see what was new. Can't wait to hear a "finished" version.
posted by sleepy pete at 11:27 PM on October 2, 2008

cortex:
yeah, I'll post it when it's ready, and I'll probably include the different versions of its evolution, kinda like what chococat did that time. And the percussion actually used to play all along the B part, but it was kinda noisy and got in the way of the rest, but I really liked how it sounded in those bits, that's why I only left that. It sounded kinda ridiculous there by itself, but I think the panning magically gave it enough "weight" and justified its being there.

snsranch:
you reminded me of that time you were doing your bills when you discovered a song I posted and you said that it made the whole process less painful. That's a purpose I never imagined for my music, for having it be chore music is actually quite cool.

Karlos the Jackal:
the percussion is me beating the back of the guitar with my thumb. Not very fancy, I know, but it's the only instrument I have right now. I tried the wood shelves of the closet first, but they didn't sound all that good.

chococat:
channeling Gilberto and Brubeck and stopping short of Sergio Mendes is one fine compliment, you have no idea how much. Sergio Mendes has been a synonym for clown and sellout in my mind ever since I heard that song Os Mutantes wrote for him. And the Brubeck thing is dead on, as you will see in the reply to sleepy pete.

sleepy pete:
I really should ask you every time I don't know where to take a song. The past few days I've been struggling with the lyrics for this one, and it has been a bitch because the "metric" of the melody is not very helpful, but that Summer Song is a great reference of how words can fit that odd amount of syllables.

As for the Brubeck/1965 jazz. The song I had bouncing in my head while I was trying to put together this song was this song by "Los fabulosos cadillacs", which blatantly steals from Take Five. I thought it would be complicated to give it that old jazz touch without other instruments, but those jazz chords really do wonders.

Thanks to you all for taking the time to listen and comment. I never know if the songs I put together make much sense, so it's always good to hear what other people thinks of them.
posted by micayetoca at 9:39 AM on October 3, 2008

This song is so very pleasant.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 9:14 AM on October 4, 2008

This is really perfect micayetoca. That's great quality for the circumstances. Really catchy and pleasant.
posted by Corduroy at 9:29 PM on October 12, 2008