57 posts tagged with indie and acoustic.
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Little black bird
Just a little song from my weird little indie folk heart. Actually reworking something old and the first thing I've recorded in a while, since I was pretty tired from the whole process of putting out my first EP in January. Also...stuff?...has been happening to my voice because I am trans and recently started testosterone therapy, I really notice the change in how my voice feels and I certainly hope others can hear it too!
Georgia
Another weird, haunting indie folk song from yours truly! There is also a weird, haunting music video located here.
This is all part of my first official release, which I am super excited about, under my stage name MK Ellison.
Smoke
Pretty proud of the vocals. This is a weird one, but my most haunting song yet. I had an image of a supernatural, quiet kind of nightmare where the narrator has a horrible premonition that something is coming for her, tries to run away, but cannot get far enough.
Big red sky
It's been a while since I posted any of my new songs here. What do you think of my kind of new direction (and quality of the recording)?
Alternative folk-ish, acoustic song with clean vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonies. Sounds happy but the lyrics are not. [more inside]
To be alone with you (Sufjan Stevens cover)
Not sure if I can do it justice, but I have loved this song every since I first heard Seven Swans in my college days. Light, soulful cover of a modern classic.
I've messed with the harmonies a little, so some of the chords are more dissonant (but in a watery, calm way, not a harsh way, if that makes any sense).
Deeper Well (Emmylou Harris cover)
I love this song. Cover with guitar, piano. From her 1995 album Wrecking Ball, which Wikipedia calls "career redefining."
I belong to you
Wrote a new song that I still like, unlike the last one I posted!
Textured, mellow, summery indie/country with guitar, percussion, strings, vocals.
Every second of the time
As long as I am posting moody, folksy songs with voice and guitar...here's another one!
17
This piano part and vocal melody have been rattling around in my brain for a while--finally wrote some lyrics and fleshed it out a bit.
Limes from Lemonade (lo-fi demo)
This is a lo-fi demo of a new song I wrote recently. It was an experiment in seeing what I could sketch out with the least effort just using my phone. I doubled and harmonized with my own vocals in the chorus, but didn't have any multitracking software on my phone to do it, so I used a freeware app that let me record and mix a second vocal as input to the waveform of my original performance. [more inside]
I wanted to
Another acoustic song! I'm really digging this thing where I limit myself to two strings, probably because I'm lazy.
The Difference
I've been listening to a lot of riot grrl and wrote this for a friend
Going Nowhere
This mp3 was converted from a video I made, recording stereo audio straight into my phone. It's a rough draft with minimal instrumentation and arrangement I'm hoping to develop further with a group that recently started coming together called The Wishing Well Divers. [more inside]
You and Your Sister
Cover of the Chris Bell song. This song was one of three assigned to me in a music challenge on another site. [more inside]
Friday Harbor
Sailing Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands [more inside]
River Town
Sometimes various musical genres blend together to create something fresh and brilliant - the old with the new, analogue with digital, with styles and sounds intermeshing to create a new fabric. That is what we were after with this song, which has got to be the Ummagma song that leans most towards folk-rock. A little hiatus from dreampop. [more inside]
Is There Any Difference?
Improvised song collaboration. I adore the outcome of this moody song. My friend Mark is on vocals, I was on guitar. Bass and piano were added later by me. We literally made this up as we recorded it. Never have made-up, almost gibberish lyrics sounded so meaningful. [more inside]
Eastern Legend
Mrs. Archivist and I are collaborating on musical project. Recording includes acoustic and electric guitars, synths, traps, accordion, and cello. [more inside]
Darker Shade of Blue
Another semi-autobiographical 1995 slice of cheerful melancholia. But a pretty guitar riff and one of my favorite choruses to sing, even if I never really could hit the last note. There's an electric version of this with more of a Big Star / Matthew Sweet feel, but darned if I can find it and anyway I like this one. [more inside]
Seventeen Below
Me, a 4-track, a guitar, some cigarettes and some booze. Probably the most autobiographical thing I've ever written. That I'll cop too, anyway. And one of my favorites too. [more inside]
The Garden of Forking Paths
This Borges-inspired track appears on the new Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies EP, Labyrinths, available now for streaming and download. The demo was posted here. [more inside]
The Ballad of Cherry Hill
This is the lead-off track from the forthcoming EP, Labyrinths, by Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies, to be released 1/7/10. It's a wistful slice of indie-pop about insomnia, suburban isolation, and the boredom of hometowns. [more inside]
Broken Wheel (skelp version)
Having used my current DAW for the last 3 years, and spending countless hours re-recording tracks that were too slow, I finally discover that it does have a varispeed function. Just how fucking dumb is that.......? [more inside]
snake (demo)
Another entry in my recent demo series of posts. I posted a not-quite-done version of the track here, featuring piano and overly heavy drums. It's a song about the old classic video game "Snake". I'm sure I'll revisit the "proper" recording some day, but in the meantime, this is a nice performance. [more inside]
Hidden
Very little idea what this is really about....but it sounds like something written by a slightly loopy obsessive. That'll be me then.... [more inside]
Counsellors Don't Lie
The trials of trying to get prescription medicine through counsellors. [more inside]
The Garden of Forking Paths
Just another folk-rock song about Jorge Luis Borges. [more inside]
Shutterbug
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo, la la la, la la la la. The new hit single from Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies. A chamber-pop meditation on time, aging, and death. [more inside]
'Til We're Dead (EP version)
Rerecorded version of "'Til We're Dead" from my forthcoming EP. [more inside]
Slip or Fade
Acoustic number in the works, just looking for some advice & feedback about this song (see description) [more inside]
'Til We're Dead
I think I managed to write a somewhat upbeat song! Well, upbeat if you ignore the title and lyrics. It's got: hammond organ, celesta, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and some epic "Woo-oo-oooh" back up vocals.
Things I Used to Know (demo)
"Our minds are permeable to forgetfulness; I myself am distorting and losing, through the tragic erosion of the years, the features of Beatriz."
-- Jorge Luis Borges [more inside]
Half
A new song idea, hatched out of procrastination for finals. It kind of grows. I write songs backwards, I realized today. [more inside]
Fever Dream
A song written and recorded today in one go. Can you guess what it's about? [more inside]
The Last Time I Saw Moscow
A very lo-fi one-take recording by The Grandma Sylvias. Acoustic guitar and vocals only; all apparent distortion is coming from knobs turned very high.
[more inside]
Secret Book (Vocal Mix - Redux)
Due to popular demand, here's yet another mix of "Secret Book" with vocals, as originally posted here and here. [more inside]
Secret Book (Vocal Mix)
This is a new version of Secret Book, of which I originally posted an instrumental version here. On the new mix, my wife Lori sings beautifully, and I wail a bit at the end. [more inside]
Engine
This is a cover of Engine by Neutral Milk Hotel. The original was the B-side of Holland, 1945. I made this recording in honor of the tenth anniversary of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. [more inside]
Rounds
A song about a night out on the town [more inside]
Christmas Time for Girls and Boys
This is the first thing I've recorded in awhile. It's a song about Christmas that I wrote for Surfjam Stevens. I recorded it in my bedroom with a little help from my friends. [more inside]
Burn Bright (Burn Out)
I think this is still probably the best thing I've written. It's arranged sparely. It's really not anything more than a more nicely-recorded version of the two-track sketch that I record immediately after finishing writing a song just to have a rough sketch of the structure and main vocal melody. I haven't got a more full recording, because... Well, every time I try to flesh out the song, I end up feeling like I've bludgeoned something delicate. I'll get it some day, but for now, I think it works best when played simply.
Circling Wolves
The oldest song I've written that I'm still willing to play, think about, work on, etc., etc. It's also changed rather radically from its even shorter original form, and it's gone through a couple lyrical rewrites. It grew a beat about six months ago. I think this is probably the final form structurally and lyrically, but I'd probably work on it more if I thought I could improve the sound quality significantly.
Constant Contact
one man's case against cuddling
Julia
Julia / you've got a lovely uvula / I wanna take you to Florida / so please say yes
We'll start a family / play lots of D&D / and watch the Goonies / on VHS
Life Story
Another acoustic living room demo, same lineup as last one. This is an original, inspired by the way the my timing seemed to be so screwed up back in my single days. I'd get a crush on someone who didn't know I existed. Then, sometime later, they'd be interested in me... but I was already over them. Someday I want to record this with a cello in the arrangement.
Well of Tears
A little muted trumpet, a little harp, a little harmonies and a lot of existential angst
Through The Rain
This one is really lo-fi as I don't have the master tape and it's a 21 year old rough demo -- and I do mean rough. :) Recorded Spring 1985 in dorm room A-1016, The Evergreen State College. (More inside.)
Mrs. Green
Semi-acoustic cover of "Mrs. Green" by the power pop band the Posies. This was done by a 3 piece band (two guitars, one bass) group I was in a while back. (We never could find a drummer, so...) I'm singing lead and also a back up part near the end. The other band members are Chris Otto and Terri Doherty. Chris did lead guitar, backing vocals, and some keys. Terri played bass. I think I did some random percussion and guitar strumming as well. (Please delete when/if covers are determined to be a problem here.)
Salt of Your Skin
sultry love number in the Phrygian mode, with oboe d'amore, pedal steel, and vibes
When it Hits My Blood
Cover of a John Vanderslice song about Requiem for a Dream.
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