48 posts tagged with percussion.
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Dear to my Heart
It’s the summer you left home, and you’re thinking about it thirty-ish years later. Thinking of what that summer seemed to promise: a little bit of the shine is still on it, some of it got worn away by vicissitudes and whatnot, and some of it did what it ought to and got used up making a life for yourself.
Make Right the Time
This is my synth-based anthem cover of the song by singer/songwriter Danny Schmidt. This version is an earlier draft from 2018, mostly from a whirlwind month when I was trying to get as much done before my trial of Ableton Live ended. Me on vocals, synth/loops. Many thanks to not_on_display for the arrangement idea and feedback through multiple iterations. Basically I made this to help myself feel better, and I figure it's something I could share especially now. [more inside]
Auld Lang Syne Chimes (chorus)
Short recording of me playing the chorus of "Auld Lang Syne" on bar chimes. Bonus background vocals by crickets outside. Total running time: 51 seconds. Happy new year, MeFi! [more inside]
When the Curtains of Night
I'm happy to present my collaboration with not_on_display: this is our version of a neat little tune that was included in The American Songbag (a 1927 folk song collection by Carl Sandburg); the song there was itself derived from a late 19th-century song by William S. Hays. [more inside]
Chimes & Oatmeal
Here's my submission (finally) for the assignment I got for the Great Raffle Request Challenge a few years back. The request: "Record a song (cover or original) on an instrument you don't really know how to play."
This one's for Secretariat! [more inside]
Never Took a Dollar from a Dead Man
This is S&H, from a show we did just the other night here in Tokyo. I'm so digging working with percussionist Habu Hiroshi, he's really bringing the groove. Video here.
Plan B
I have no idea how to describe this track but someone on the internet said it was a "nice intergalactic battle shifting to a chase". [more inside]
Ching Dong Boss
This is the Smoke Benders, coming at ya live from beautiful downtown Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Featuring the amazing Numa Naoya on his amazing little drum kit and yours truly on original WaveDrum. And random hollerin'. Lyrics and embedded video here.
Lucky
From sort of creepy to really creepy. From cover/arrangement/orchestration to abstraction. This is not your Major's Lucky. [more inside]
Hate That Train That Carried My Girl From Town
Here's the SMOKE BENDERS, live in Toyama, Japan, from March 2012. The sound is a little gymnasium-y, due to the fact that the gig was in a gymnasium. I'm on electric talking drum for this one. Video here.
Frog
Live tweaking glitchy percussion loops, with warm synths to sweeten the deal.
Jingle Bells
Impromptu version of the holiday classic. This closed out the night for the Smoke Benders' last gig of 2011. Video here.
Soon As the Rain Lets Up
From the latest BIG SYSTEM gig. Mostly drumming going on here (WaveDrum and talking drum), but the one verse I broke into (never got around to the next one) is from an old song of mine (someone uploaded it to YT here), and that was enough to give this one a title. Video at YouTube or Vimeo.
Bless Your Pretty Bones
From the inaugural gig of my new clatter trio, the Metaphors, here's a tune I posted (in a solo version) here earlier this year. Video at YT or Vimeo.
Tubular Tubes_2
Tubular Tubes
My daughter and I playing some plastic tubes. Video here.
Jacaranda
The latest sound, kids: run yer thumb piano through a cheap pitch shifter. Recorded live at Super Deluxe, Tokyo, July 5, 2010. Video of this same performance may be viewed on ye olde YouTubes.
World Beneath the Tracks
A brand new song I really wanted to record right away, even though I didn't have any instruments with me. So I used a plastic water bottle... Rubbermaid brand, I believe, and recorded it straight to video with my new camera, which has a pretty decent mic on it, as it turns out. The video's at YouTube.
little metal sanza
I decided to start doing some audio-video documenting of my various instruments: no grand opuses or anything, just little demonstrations. the video (which also includes a bit of show-and-tell spoken introduction) can be seen at YouTube.
Gladly Transform Cold Smoky Codas
My second attempt at "composition," this bit of improvised serialism is based on the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists' Doomsday Clock [more inside]
Oh The King
A tune about an odd man who used to roam around my neighborhood as a kid. He wore a crown sometimes. Featuring chococat on drums. [more inside]
Walkabout (Atlas Sound cover)
In which I decide to stop candy butt-ing around it, and attempt to join the reverb drenched, echo cave sound of today. This doesn't really sound like anything I've done before, so I'd love to hear a couple reactions. [more inside]
All Tomorrow's Parties (SKIST)
Skist (previously) is my band with singer/sound artist Haruna Ito. Hope you enjoy. I also made a video for the song, which can be seen at YouTube or Vimeo.
The Power of Cheese
I'm Waiting for the Man
Aren't we all? [more inside]
All Undone
For this month's MeFiMu Challenge, here's a song first written in 1986 and first recorded and released in 1991. This version was recorded earlier today. Rewrote the last verse. The old is new again...
The Lift
Another Sauna Song. Recorded at 4 this morning, and actually sounds more like it was recorded outside than my last song, even though this one wasn't at all. In drop D, but tuned down a whole step. [more inside]
Burning December
A song I recorded outside today, except for the vocals which I will explain inside. This is another one I would especially appreciate thoughts on. [more inside]
Restoration of Water
From my duo SKIST's (previously ) 2nd release, Taking Something Somewhere. I've posted this here for you "logged in members" to download if you so desire, but I highly recommend listening to it the first time with the accompanying video, cause the video looks like the song sounds, and I'm proud of the video, and most of all cause I think the visual reference will help to decipher and delineate the somewhat obscure structure of the song.
We'll Walk Far
A love song to my girlfriend and hiking. Banjolele, percussion, and whistling. [more inside]
Upon Returning to the New Hampshire Fall
A song about my return from the Northwest this summer to my New Hampshire homeland, who has been deserted by all my peers. No banjolele, but harmonies and fog and mirrors percussion. Also a standard tuned guitar playing with a DAADAE guitar. [more inside]
Mnemosyne (It's autumn in the country I remember...)
A tango-influenced setting of a hundred year-old poem by Trumbull Stickney, "Mnemosyne" is the title track of our new CD, recorded by Ljova and the Kontraband (music by Ljova, sung by Inna).
Mnemosyne is the Greek goddess of memory, and this is a song of nostalgy and of memories that turn color like autumn leaves yearning for rebirth with a vibrant song in the spring....
We've long been looking forward to sharing this song with you all.
[more inside]
Deixa Isso Pra La
For the current MeFiMu Challenge, here's a song in a language I don't speak. This bit of Portuguese proto-rap is a longtime standard in Brazil. [more inside]
Gideon (MMJ cover)
Quick solo acoustic cover of the My Morning jacket song. [more inside]
Venezia
This is my little ode to that most absurdly beautiful and unlikely of Italian cities. This tune, once again, features the mouth bow (otherwise known as the poor man's wah-wah) plus lots of percussion and whatnot. The mix could probably use a bit of tweaking here and there, but I think it's basically presentable... [more inside]
Cupcake, When You Have a Chance
This month's themes (cupcake, brisk, interstitials) didn't exactly turn the inspiration amplifier up to 11, but, goddammit, I ain't one to run away from a challenge, no sirree. I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. So this one goes out to you, my little cupcake. You know who you are. [more inside]
Man of Very Few Words
Well, it's a few days late for the November '07 MeFi Music Challenge, but my on-the-fritz computer spent most of the month in the repair shop, plus the dog ate my homework, but better late than never, I reckon. So this one's going under the veryfewwords tag, as if the song title didn't give that away. [more inside]
rice jam
acoustic guitar, wood, steel, glass, and some rice.
Nashville
Technically not a song performed by me, but a song done by 2 of my good friends which was tracked (mostly) and mixed by me. I'm posting this because I've got a 1:30 remix of the song I did, and I want to post that. I figured it'd be nice to have context.
Bring Me The Head Of Elmo
Lyrics [with handy reference links!] and more information inside.
Just Blew Into Town
Here's a song from the RPM '07 CD that I just popped into the mail today. In the end I was able to get 8 presentable tunes together within the space of the month. Whew!
Blues Wrapped Round My Head
In a slow count of 5, here's some kind of convergence of Burma and the blues, or thereabouts. "scissors cut paper / paper blows away / stone smashes scissors / and so it goes / another day / but it's all downhill from here / at least that's what sisyphus said /ah you're fucked six ways from sunday / with the blues wrapped round your head"
Undefined
Out of several tunes in various states of completion for the RPM project, this is the most presentable. In use for this track are: voice, talking drum, bells (metal and wooden), guiro, synth bass and organ. Every so often I write a song which is overtly political (a protest song, for want of a better term), and this is one of them.
Montage
an overwhelmingly ambient texture, pierced with many elements of various density - scraped percussion, Latin and bluegrass gestures, strings, somber guitar notes and swirling electronics. Very soundtrack, very visual, particuarly for fans of Gustavo Santaolalla.
Oh Death
Here's my version of this most haunting of American folk songs. It's very stripped-down: just voice, drone, a bass drum and a shekere. In the time-honored folk tradition, I've made a few minor lyrics changes here and there, and the melody I'm using is different from the Dock Boggs or Stanley Brothers versions of the tune. Anyway, it's one of my very favorite traditional songs. Hope you enjoy.
Until You Kiss Me
"i blew across the great plains like a plastic bag / from the broken heart of town to the dock of the bay / there ain't that much to say about the wide wide world / people everywhere just sleepwalk in their own little way / and ain't no hope of waking up / until you kiss me babe"
Party People (Get On the Dancefloor)
This is a recently recorded song that'll probably go on my next release. I'm not sure yet about the mix, but I guess it's good enough in its current state for a spin around the MeFi block. Party down y'all. [lyrics inside]</small]
When percussionists attack!
This is what happens when three percussionists get bored of the rest of the band taking forever to set up and tweak...
They attack!
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