Thursday, February 10, 2005

SANPELLEGRINO


Of inferior quality, not complete, quite possibly a stolen melody that I can't quite place, but still the first piece of music ever posted on KeyChange. Have fun!

posted by Samuel @ 1:58 AM   2 comments

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2 Comments:

At 11:06 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does this work?

 
At 7:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

On first listen, I really like it. Maybe that only means it's pop-y, catchy and cute, but I think it's got more to it, too. The keyboard sounds a bit like The Postal Service's electronic sounds at the outset. I'm curious how good a good recording would sound, in headphones particularly, because you've got some interesting T/B things going on.

One part lose with a good recording is that cool everything-falls-apart noise at the end, that throw-the-sticks-down, unplug, turn-the-record-button-off jumble, which I'm fond of. It's satisfying for some reason, perhaps because it brings the listener closer to what's going on with the making of the music.
Christine | 02.10.05 - 11:55 am | #

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pretty good. who is playing what instruments? is it all sawise? it sounds like your voice with a little effect on it or something. what kind of equipment you using these days? overall i like the songs melody/chord changes. the drums seem a little off at some parts of the song and the whole thing overall could be mixed a little better. but it seems like a lot more work went into this song than some of the other stuff ive heard from you. i like it. keep up the good work.
dave | 02.10.05 - 1:28 pm | #

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Thanks. Your right Christine it's no Bob Dylan song, but I'm starting to think catchy/cute is OK. I'm also very fond of the, "remember listener this is a song that was recorded by a person. Just a person," moments. Someone else once made the Postal Service comparison. I worry that it's just because there is keyboard. I'm going to add guitar. What are t/B moments?
Yes Dave, I'm playing keyboard and drums and singing with delay on my voice. I use my delay pedal on my casio keyboard (which i fell on top of the other day and busted one of its keys) as well. I've only been drumming for a year and a half or so so sometimes I can't quite execute what I'm thinking drumming-wise. But I was once told that I drum like I'm falling on top of and knocking over the drumset. I really like that description so if things are a bit off at points that's mostly OK with me. And of course it could be mixed better, the recording is over the phone so...
SamB | 02.10.05 - 1:56 pm | #

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the best piece on keychange ever. i think you're a better singersongwriter than either of use are a writer or visual artist (i.e my comics).

is it possible to fall in love with a sound?
lars | 02.11.05 - 4:01 am | #

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yes i'm drunk again

but still
lars | 02.11.05 - 4:02 am | #

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you recorded over a phone? jesus...thats amazing. your cell phone records that stuff? didnt you have a four track?
dave | 02.11.05 - 9:26 am | #

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I think he has to hold the phone up to his computer speakers. I have no idea why , since he records on his computer, he can't make an Mp3 straight from the recording and post it.
Luke P | 02.11.05 - 10:14 am | #

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I hold the phone up to the headphones. I can make an mp3, but where can you host mp3's for free? I can't find anyplace.
And Lars give it a sober listen and let me know what you think.
SamB | 02.11.05 - 12:04 pm | #

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And yes it's most definitely possible to fall in love with a sound. I'm in love with this one this week. (Listen to it it's killer.)
SamB | 02.11.05 - 12:15 pm | #

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i just played it for my roommate and i still like it a ton. he did too. i wanted him to hear the beat (fuck the critics, the drummings fantastic -- the "off" hits are perfect and recurring, like a fuck i forgot the simile i was going to use). you should hear some of his beats, mostly made with sounds recorded from rare noises in the city, and mostly influenced by the street drummers who use plastic buckets in the subways.
lars | 02.11.05 - 2:26 pm | #

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this comment goes with sam's story way below, but half-christmases... that stuck with me.
lars | 02.11.05 - 2:28 pm | #

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Whay can't I open the file I downloaded from your link?
I like the song. I do have a couple criticisms ( what did you expect?)
1. The vocal line in the verse . The phrasing that you repeat.It sound like you are struggling to keep it in time, like you have to go back up for a breath but don't have the time to.It's sort of jarring.

2. I like your voice better when you aren't trying to sing so well.The voice you use in the songs sounds like you trying to sound kind of swing-ey
Sinatra-like. It doesn't sound like your natural voice.It's too nasal. I know you really like those deep rich tones, but It doesn't feel right to me.
Maybe it's just the recording. I'd rather hear your voice without it. That's a compliment.

All in all I think you're improving a lot and I'm excited for you. Please don't take these criticisms too seriously.It's one guy's opinion and it's a guy who has fickle, nonsense tastes.
Luke P | 02.11.05 - 5:56 pm | #

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I appreciate the criticism.
1. I think the rush/struggle/tripping is part of the charm in the melody. I think I like it a lot. Though I am going to re-record the line exactly on beat to compare.
2. I've been very mindful of my technique lately when singing. Part of that is being careful to use the diaphragm and signing from the soft palate (where nose meets mouth, though I don't hear "nasal"). I'm going for a sort of sob in this not a tear (read rip). I think that's just my voice. If it was a bit more rock 'n' roll it might necessitate that tear or not "trying to sing well". But again, here I think I like it.
SamB | 02.11.05 - 6:52 pm | #

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You can also get to that link by going to http://www.reginaspektor.com/index1.html and clicking on "music" on the top menu bar. Then watch the video (which is actually kind of rad and she's hot)/listen to the song "Us" from "Soviet Kitsch".
SamB | 02.11.05 - 6:55 pm | #

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Yeah, but the voice sounds so deep and rough (maybe that's just the recording), which contrasts well with the very treble, ringing keyboard tones. That's why I think it would sound great in headphones. Anyway, it's a great tune. I want you to play it at my birthday party at a roller skating rink.
Christine | 02.11.05 - 7:39 pm | #

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Oh man! I think that's perfect.
SamB | 02.11.05 - 7:41 pm | #

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I think the drumming should be simple and repetitive.Your'e trying to do too much.Let the song breathe.
Luke P | 02.12.05 - 5:35 am | #

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I like it. You're still up? Me too. Fuck.
Lars, I've been listening to your roomate's album again lately. The piano sound he gets on those songs is perfect. The verse of "Give Away" is so much greatness. And I kind of wanna sob to "I want you back" the falsetto part on the chorus sounds like it has a lump in its throat. And "tonite", I love the urgency of the beginning moving into the early Wailers' doo-wop. And "diddy" is not only high-larious, but again that piano on the left side all alone by its self sounds so great. And the girls singing sound like little kids. I love that.
SamB | 02.12.05 - 6:02 am | #

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And I love that AM radio/telephone filter he uses in the beginning of "anchor in my bed".
SamB | 02.12.05 - 6:07 am | #

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No, I woke up at 530, nuga.
Lars- does your roomate have stuff online?
Luke P | 02.12.05 - 9:35 am | #

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www.pauldiddy.com ... click on the robot that says music

that's the old stuff he did with his band in madison last year (the same as on the cd i sent sam). that same group recorded another lp that's still in production (the producer's just some lazy guy in madison). paul is recording some newer stuff now, a fairly different sound, that's not available online yet (he's only playing with beat recordings mostly and has only a few guitar accompaniments recorded; he just plays along on a real guitar and sings while the computer plays). these new beats are the ones sam's drumming reminds me of
lars | 02.12.05 - 12:23 pm | #

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Cool. I'll look at the site in a minute.
Sam- email John R. or Sam J. and ask them how they got their polkapocalypse song online in mp3 form. I bet it was free..
Luke P | 02.12.05 - 1:49 pm | #

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Somebody wants his MTV.
Luke P | 02.12.05 - 1:56 pm | #

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i like the song a lot. but i think it's the part the most, 'freedom i never want to ever let you go' or whatever you're saying. i agree with the other critcism on the drums and such, i think they sound cool, but i would play with a metronome. i know looking at things i've made playing drums like that without accompaniment (which is really hard) is always hard for me cause i hear if the beat's even a bit off. casio tone. but i think that one hook is really the song. that's what it is to me at least, very fifties like 'on the boardwalk' or something or sixties. i know what you mean when you say you've heard it somewhere before. and i like the tremolo in yr voice in the beginning, and the beginning drum part that sounds like a machine. the piano sound that i got on that album was from an upright piano i had at my house that i bought for thirty dollars, and it was a bitch to do because it ended up sounding really muddy, but i intentionally left it honky tonk by not tuning it, usi
Paul | Homepage | 02.12.05 - 10:42 pm | #

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ok, that thousand character thing sux. cont:
using 2 shure sm58's, left on the bass side and right channel on the treble side, eq'd accordingly. the girls singing were all drunk friends (4 of them) who don't sing and when they do don't do it too well. kind of like odb's female accompaniment on nigga please.
oh, if anyone'd like a mix cd, www.pauldiddy.com/dj/dj.html it's super mellow, but what i've been listening to. if you want your mp3 on my site, i can host it, and you can link there. i'd like to hear it.
paul
Paul | Homepage | 02.12.05 - 10:45 pm | #

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Blogger changed their comments. You no longer have to sign in.
Luke P | 02.13.05 - 4:27 pm | #

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for real
Anonymous | 02.13.05 - 5:27 pm | #

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Thanks for the hosting offer. The song isn't finished though, so maybe I'll take you up on the offer when it is.
SamB | 02.14.05 - 1:18 pm | #

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I just listened to the gestalt of the song the first time through, but after all the talk about the drums, I cranked up the speakers and tried to focus more on them. Which wasn't hard AT ALL: I couldn't understand why they didn't grab me the first time through--very propulsive! and I like the effect they give that Sam is throwing in extra beats at the last second, just to catch up with the beat that he has set for himself.
steviepinhead | 02.14.05 - 5:02 pm | #

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I was wondering where you were stevie.
SamB | 02.16.05 - 6:09 am | #

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I'm usually lurking, but while I'm fascinated by how you put these pieces together and I'm doing my best to follow the more technical parts of the discussion, all that's kind've out've my depth. The usual, don't-know-nothing, exceptin'-I-know-what-I-like...
steviepinhead | 02.16.05 - 12:46 pm | #

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Who are you Stevie?
Luke P | 02.16.05 - 1:05 pm | #

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It's Lars' dad.
SamB | 02.16.05 - 2:31 pm | #

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At least, that seems to be Lars's opinion. So far, he hasn't been required to defend his thesis.
steviepinhead | 02.16.05 - 4:00 pm | #

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Well, it seems to be your opinion at least to some degree, unless I misinterpreted this comment of yours from a post below, "i was thinking this was lars writing about his dad, and feeling vaguely offended about the deodorizer and after shave references, since i've never used them, and then illinois came along and i knew it was at least intended to be fiction and then i got over myself and into it and then it turned out to be sam."
SamB | 02.16.05 - 5:20 pm | #

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Well, if Lars thinks that steviepinhead is his dad, right or wrong, then steviepinhead is entitled to play with the notion of getting "miffed" at the image of his "child" visualizing him as applying deodorant, right or wrong, right? Or wrong? But then Lars turned out to be you and your Dad turned out to be fictional--at least from the point of view of deconstructing the text--and I'm definitely not YOUR dad, right?
And how do you capture a quote like that? My version of haloscan won't let me cut-paste-etc.
And for more on the , er, underarm theme, see my latest contribs on the London Bridge post.
steviepinhead | 02.16.05 - 8:10 pm | #

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Yea, yea, yea. Though in the same way you may or may not be Lars' dad (I seem to remember him saying you were at some point), you may or may not be my dad playing some sort of Internet identity role. But he probably wouldn't do that so your probably not my Dad.
I don't know what dad/father does or does not mean exactly without "biological" and "step" as qualifiers (and even then I know we can argue about it). For example, my roommate calls his biological father's (who is still married to his biological mother and who also lived in the same house and raised him) biological father's second wife his "Grandma", though she's not my roommate's biological father's mother or "blood" or his biological grandmother in the current understanding of the term.
But I know who my dad/father is and I call him "Dad" and he makes/fits my definition. As you seem to be getting at, each individual defines who his dad/father is. So if Lars says so, I'm likely to believe him.
Lars is un
SamB | 02.17.05 - 3:30 am | #

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Lars is unusually silent on the issue so maybe we should leave it all at that.
Re: copying and pasting, I use a PC, but I just highlight the text from the published comment, then right-click and select "copy" and then hit ctrl V to paste it into my unpublished comment.
SamB | 02.17.05 - 3:32 am | #

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Thanks, Sam. I keep forgetting about right click (just more evidence of my "genius").
I don't wanna do the work of going all the way back to lars's original comment, but my recollection was that I was having (what was meant to be) more-or-less innocent fun with a typo in one of the comments to your guy-girl-"minimalist" post--treating the typo as a 'text' of its own, and springboarding from that to an attempted somewhat-more-serious comment on aspects of your original post that I thought were being overlooked--and lars's retort was along the lines that I was being hypercritical about the grammar-spelling.
Apparently his "dad' must be like that--at least in lars's mind, right?--so HE made the stevieP:lars's dad equation.
Those who are truly curious about this largely-irrelevant point can go back and track through that entire thread and judge for themselves whether this was well-reasoned on lars's part or not, but I think it's fairly clear that I disagree on the initia
steviepinhead | 02.17.05 - 7:02 pm | #

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--the initial characterization of my intent as grammatically hypercritical.
Unless some particularly good excuse for having some more fun with lars's supposition comes along, for now I'm with you:maybe we should just leave it all at that.
steviepinhead | 02.17.05 - 7:04 pm | #

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yikes.... while i believe in the importance of receiving comments innocently, that is, not influenced by who is speaking, i also find it silly to try and fend off identifying who you are. i was silent for a while because my neighbors who have been kindly providing through the walls wireless internet access all year have moved and now i get a signal much less frequently. all i know is i directed my dad to the page a while back to see my comics postings (he is an avid fan of the medium, nudge > luke, and had scarcely seen my drawings since i was little and in the habit of merely drawing two-legged superhero poses), and shortly after a regular commentator whose name bares a similarity to my father's appeared on the site.
lars | 02.18.05 - 1:45 pm | #

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yikes.... and I'm sure Lars's dad--biological or otherwise--is very proud of his writing and drawing!
Why the ? Does Luke do two-legged superhero poses? Er, and what exactly ARE "two-legged" superhero poses? Are they different from the superhero poses of super-dogs, super-cats, and super-horses?
steviepinhead | 02.18.05 - 4:38 pm | #

 

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