Birdhouse in Your Soul

January 12, 2015 7:28 AM

Even -- or especially -- in the darkest hours of the night or the wee hours of the morning, there is still a Birdhouse in Your Soul. For the Flood project, here is a cover by chara and me.

The main lesson I learned -- and I learned several -- is not to take ambien, trazodone, and lorazepam, and then go back to work for another four hours instead of going to bed. I am not sure that I remember what decisions I've made here and and I'll probably regret some of the mixing choices I made but after a couple of hours of tromping up and down the stairs with burned CDs to listen to them on different equipment I am not up to it anymore.

This song is built around Chara's lovely, lovely vocals, mostly using the autoharp and keyboards. There's a little bit of Marxophone and a brief cameo by a Buddha Machine.

I am so tired.

posted by Karlos the Jackal (32 comments total) 39 users marked this as a favorite

Lovely. Those are better decisions than I make when I'm wide-awake, so ... obviously you're doing something right. I love the feel of the musical break/breakdown section.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:49 AM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Aaah, very nice! Restful, I thought.
posted by JHarris at 7:55 AM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


huzzah!
posted by chara at 8:35 AM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Those "Ooohs" at 3:15 are gorgeous and kind of what I wanted for my track.
posted by Brainy at 9:37 AM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Wonderfully done! Good work, Karlos and chara. This is beautiful and has an appropriately calming sound.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 9:38 AM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Holy hell that's awesome!
posted by ochenk at 10:26 AM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


This is really great. I love the sleepy feel. Chara's voice and your formidable autoharp chops work together like they were meant to be. Kudos!
posted by umbĂș at 12:23 PM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


I will probably eventually find this as relaxing as I should given the feel that's already mentioned, but I kept gasping at how great certain parts were the first time.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:59 PM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Although normally I'd advise against doing anything while on ambien, lorazepam, and trazodone, in this case I'd make a shining exception. You must have a strong will to have been able to sculpt this beauty through that pharmaceutical haze -- the end product carries that sleepy, lullaby feeling very well, and I wouldn't have expected this song to have been adequately rendered this way. Really great fuckin' job!!
posted by not_on_display at 2:39 PM on January 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


This is so beautiful that I've listened to it three times in the last 30 minutes and it's made me tear up every time.
posted by Caduceus at 6:59 PM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Nice! Really like the static /dissonance around 1:41. Great job!
posted by Slothomatic at 9:11 PM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Excellent!
posted by litlnemo at 12:57 AM on January 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


I think this may replace the original as the canonical version of this song for me.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:19 AM on January 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


This song is, in fact, the only bee in my bonnet right now. Great work both of you!
posted by billiebee at 10:07 AM on January 13, 2015 [3 favorites]


dude.
posted by chococat at 6:04 PM on January 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


Listening again...those filigrees at 2:16! So gorgeous.
posted by Brainy at 10:02 PM on January 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


whoa. i love this.
posted by elmer benson at 8:01 PM on January 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


Filigrees are courtesy of this special little guy.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 4:42 PM on January 15, 2015


Man, I need me a marxophone.
posted by umbĂș at 4:50 PM on January 15, 2015


ugh. YOU'RE the worst! So good, Karlos, this is beautiful.
posted by Corduroy at 1:17 PM on January 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


Late to the praise, but wow, I am truly appreciating an old favorite in a new way. I am off to share with others TMBG fans.
posted by dawg-proud at 6:30 PM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


This song is giving me goosebumps. Wow.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:18 PM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


I love this.
posted by yankeefog at 3:54 AM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]


This is absolutely wonderful. Absolutely.
posted by evilangela at 1:55 PM on January 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


This is great.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:45 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Should I mention I actually have a blue, bird-shaped nightlight in my kitchen. Because the outlet is right by a light switch.

(And this is awesome.)
posted by Samizdata at 12:37 AM on February 14, 2015 [3 favorites]


This is still one of my favorite songs. It's the only quiet/slow song on my exercise playlist and I'm always so happy when it comes up. Thanks very much chara and Karlos the Jackal for making it and sharing it.
posted by blub at 5:14 AM on September 29, 2015 [2 favorites]


I remember the Flood cover project happening, but knowing nothing other than this song never actually followed up listening to the results.

This literally just popped up in my "Most Favorited Tracks from your contacts" sidebar, which I'd never even realised was a thing. Someone should shout about the merits of that on MetaTalk or something. Advertising!

More to the point, this is a charming take on a classic song. Those "sprang, sprang" semi-percussive noises really set off the vocals. Two thumbs up!
posted by comealongpole at 2:49 PM on April 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


It was such a pleasant surprise to have this thread pop up in my recent activity feed; I had almost completely forgotten about this project! Karlos, thank you for collaborating with me to make such a lovely composition. I've all but abandoned my recording ambitions these day, due to life and work and whatever. I think this is the kick in the pants that I need to encourage me to get back in the studio.
posted by chara at 9:28 AM on April 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


Three and a half years later, this is still absolutely lovely.
posted by yankeefog at 3:13 AM on June 21, 2018 [5 favorites]


I don't know music and this isn't entirely my sort of thing, but I love the (audio) space the whole piece exists in, if that makes sense? Really good cover.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 8:45 PM on June 25, 2018


Came here from the MeTa thread. This is really, really lovely (a word that appears multiple times in the comments above, and the best word I can think of--especially those vocals!)
posted by duffell at 7:56 AM on June 26, 2018


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