Not Holding Up

April 4, 2013 1:54 PM

From the same old cassette, but this one done in a studio. This one's original, finally.

I painted the interior of a recording studio once and got to do a demo, for payment. I did guitar and piano. A friend played drums, and the bassist was this guy named Spot, who went on to become a rather well known producer. Karen did the high harmony and I did the low. All I came away with was a rough mix off the board, but it still sounds OK to me, in a 70's powerballad type way.

posted by Danf (9 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

Definitely a timepiece but I really like it! It's reminiscent of Byrds or Neil Young stuff.
posted by Miko at 5:17 PM on April 4, 2013


Thanks Miko. That means something, coming from you.
posted by Danf at 7:24 PM on April 4, 2013


This is really great, definitely agree with Miko that it sounds a lot like Neil Young. It's a goddamn shame the way cassettes degrade, because this is a really nice recording too, actually.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:30 AM on April 5, 2013


Thirded, your voice has a lovely delicate Young-eque quality to it. You should try and re-record this! It would be a shame to only have it in such a badly degraded version.

Also, I don't think this has dated much at ALL. It's a really nice song.
posted by greenish at 6:14 AM on April 5, 2013


Definitely nice bright retro feel, reminiscent of better musical days...
posted by Brodyaga at 9:07 AM on April 5, 2013


I also really like this. I bet you played the hell out of this cassette dub.
It was so cool to get a real studio rough mix on a cassette and play it for everyone over and over.
I actually like all the tape degradation stuff; I know it would be great to have a clean recording, but in this case it really puts the song in a context, gives it a real time and place.
Is all the psychedelic sped-up stuff at the end intentional or just weird tape speed stuff and imprinting from being in a drawer for years and years?
posted by chococat at 4:16 PM on April 5, 2013


I think that it was on the wide tape that was in the Aphex. It was used, and the cassette was used, just stuff laying around, since this recording job was a tradeoff for the painting I did, they did not treat it like a paying gig. But I have sort of gotten used to it being there. I have transferred it to other cassettes and faded it out, but it does not ruin the song to have it in there, and in a way it remedies the "behold this poor poor bastard and his broken heart" vibe, a bit.
posted by Danf at 6:38 PM on April 5, 2013


This definitely does sound like a historic document, and it definitely has that Neil Young vibe. Love the harmony singing! And the cassette weirdness at the end is perfect.
posted by edlundart at 11:12 PM on April 7, 2013


Whoa this is fucking lovely. Thanks for posting it. It has degraded but it sounds beautiful and the recording is just great. Your voice sounds great.
posted by Corduroy at 6:19 AM on April 8, 2013


« Older BFD   |   1+1=3 Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments