You Are My Sunshine

Let's call it EMOldtimey. Or, really, let's not. It's not a damned clean rendition, but with this old heartbreaker you don't have to be. My pre-verbal niece was purported to love it, and that's good enough for me.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by cortex (22 comments total)

Voice is a bit creaky in places; kinda scratching at the top of my range (ridiculous sounding falsetto aside).
posted by cortex at 6:53 AM on February 6, 2007

absolutely perfect, cortex. Thanks for starting my day off so nicely.
posted by fingers_of_fire at 8:10 AM on February 6, 2007

I love it. The Millard Brothers, Josh Millard (banjo), Josh Millard (guitar and voice), Josh Millard (mandolin) and Josh Millard (voice, occasionally washboard, not here though).

I love the banjo and I loved it when it came in. If I needed some banjo for the tracks you think the Millard Bros. could lend me Josh for a collaboration?
posted by micayetoca at 10:27 AM on February 6, 2007

I meant "some banjo for a track, sorry about that. I don't want you to think I'm gonna tie the banjoist to the railroad tracks or something like that.
posted by micayetoca at 10:30 AM on February 6, 2007

I'll have to check the band's schedule, but I'm pretty sure Banjo Millard would be available to do some tracking. Let me know.
posted by cortex at 10:34 AM on February 6, 2007

You can call it EMOldtimey if you record the sound of me kicking you in the butt every time you say it and use it as the rhythm track. Great song and I'm glad you're niece likes it. She already has great taste.
posted by sleepy pete at 3:47 PM on February 6, 2007

Way to go! I'm diggin' it.
posted by snsranch at 3:59 PM on February 6, 2007

Man, a song that has "Ow! My ass!" as the core rhythm element would be interesting.
posted by cortex at 5:14 PM on February 6, 2007

Voice being "a bit creaky in places" is, of course, what gives it life. Harmonies are lovely, feel is nice and relaxed, and you can't go wrong with that banjo. Well done!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:03 PM on February 6, 2007

PS, cortex, I wanna second micayetoca's request for some banjo strummin'. I need banjo! And I like the sound of y'orn! I'm in the market for a nice, modal clawhammer type thingie that just sits on a groove and stays there for awhile. Just one minor chord, with embellishments here and there. Nice and old-timey like. Maybe you'd like to trade for a little percussion groove you could lay some Josh opus over?

pps: how's yer RPM coming? I've got about 3 and 1/2 songs down right now... Thinking of posting one to MeFi as a sneak preview.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:01 AM on February 7, 2007

Banjoin' requests: hit up the profile for the email, we'll figure something out.

RPM: I haven't done any recording yet—I have probably five songs I could do a reasonably complete demo of, and another three or four ranging from half-baked to Stupid Notion in incompleteness. I may record said scratch demos tonight, depending.
posted by cortex at 6:46 AM on February 7, 2007

It went something like this:

1. EMOldtimey. Fuck you.
2. Oh, it's this guy!
3. Wow, this is really good.
4. I miss Aural Times. :(
posted by roll truck roll at 1:39 AM on February 8, 2007

Heh. Thanks, roll truck roll. I miss it too, but I don't miss working on it while feeling totally burnt out and pressed for time, which is where I was when it trailed off.
posted by cortex at 7:49 AM on February 8, 2007

I miss the Aural Times too!

Seeing it mentioned here makes me wonder if you couldn't do it with a group of musicians. Use the power of the net and get other to generate content for you! What if you had 12 "reporters" on a schedule to submit stories? You'd only have to produce one yourself every few weeks or so. You, as curmudgeonly editor, could comment on the pieces. Good, bad, or ugly, the songs--along with your great writing--would at least entertain.

You could link to the reporter's bands sites and gain readership through them.

Just a thought.
posted by nonmyopicdave at 1:53 PM on February 9, 2007

I've had that thought, actually, nonmyopicdave. It's a good one, but I never got anywhere near critical mass on it; I did get contributions from a couple mefites and a non-mefite contact from the east coast, but that was about it.

I've considered trying to muster folks from the meficomp project, for example, and from here, but I've never moved on it, and partly I'm not sure if I'd be willing to be that much of a whip to make sure it actually happened.

It's close to a year to the day that I registered the domain; I just renewed it on principle the other day.
posted by cortex at 2:09 PM on February 9, 2007

When I was a kid, I (of course) knew of this song, but in a low-level background sort of way. All I knew of the lyrics were the chorus.

I distinctly remember the first time that I actually listened to the non-chorus parts of the song. The realization that not only is this not a happy song, but in fact is as far as songs get from "happy song", struck with a mighty blow.
posted by Flunkie at 5:56 PM on February 9, 2007

Oh fuck off. You made me cry with this. Shut up. More like this please. Bah.
posted by motty at 6:04 PM on February 15, 2007

To clarify, in case a translation from the British is required, my last comment meant nothing more than 'this is brilliant, I loved it, and it really did move me to tears.'
posted by motty at 6:09 PM on February 15, 2007

It came across perfectly, motty. Thanks very much.
posted by cortex at 6:11 PM on February 15, 2007

Hey, Sreiny posted a great minor key live rendition of this today. Neat.
posted by cortex at 9:54 AM on October 10, 2007

Hey cortex - this is wonderful. Love it.
posted by Ira.metafilter at 7:05 PM on October 11, 2007

What Ira said. Beautiful Cortex
posted by wheelieman at 5:42 AM on October 25, 2007