I took a break from this blog for-reasons-that-are-known-to-me-and-me-alone, BUT NOW I'M BACK. Let's start things with a BOO.
This week's MP3 is a really nice soundboard recording of my band Trouble's Afoot (currently in need of a drummer) performing my song "Halloween", at the Sidewalk Cafe in August 2009.
Once you've listened to that (or don't listen to it, what do I care?), you can see how AWESOMED UP it got once I brought it to my band. Dave's bass is crazy during the "party freak out" section, the drums are completely loose and fun and somehow holding this Frankenstein song together, and my guitar is...well, it's doing it's job. By which I mean ROCKING. HARD. REAL HARD. AND TOUGH.
Mostly because the amp at the Sidewalk Cafe only had one setting -- "ROCKING HARD AND TOUGH", which made the song sound a bit odd, but I like it.
This was always a song I considered a b-side, a little oddity nobody would ever hear. But my drummer LOVED it, and the more we practiced it the more we realized how much more interesting it made our show. All year round, not just in the Fall. I gotta write more like these.
So it's Halloween. SAY WHAT. My band Trouble's Afoot does a song called "Halloween."
I think you see where this is going.
Our version of that song is over at my website jordancooperlalala.com, but for your enjoyment I am going to post the embarrassing and crappy demo I made for the song many, many years ago. Another pre-tonsillectomy vocal performance where I sound all stuffed up.
Here are the lyrics: Halloween's my favorite holiday Everyone listens to what I have to say Everything seems to go my way On Halloween
When I see a Halloween cupcake I get a jack-o-lantern smile across my face Even though I don't like the taste The very idea is just so great.
I can't recognize my best friend I don't know what room he's in He's not acting like he usually is
He's smiling under his skin Halloween feelings may not last long Before Thanksgiving they're already gone.
This week's mp3 is "Hi Eight", which was an instrumental that was decent, then smashed with audio from an old hi8 tape, from when me and my friends walked around Manhattan during Halloween (2002? 2003?). I can't exactly describe the feeling of this mp3...the music, mostly made with my acoustic guitar, is relaxed and indifferent, but the audio sample is frenetic and full of energy, and even sounds aggressive.
This song was always odd to me because of that conflict. I didn't have a master plan, I honestly put the audio on it for absolutely no reason. I love the end result, though. At the end, my friend Dave says "Those are the kind of people you want to avoid on Halloween."
