Members Stackabones Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 What has influenced you in the past ... or since the last FIT? * I love Tom Waits. While I don't have every recording, I'm working on it. I'd been looking up some TW vids and saw Blue Skies. I ignored it for a bit, but a couple of days later I got really curious about how an Irving Berlin song would sound in Tom Waits' hands. [YOUTUBE]YErXozSHW9w[/YOUTUBE] After listening to that and realizing what it was, I purchased The Early Years Vols 1 & 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted September 18, 2009 Moderators Share Posted September 18, 2009 Beautiful. I love Tom Waits. My first exposure to him was via an Eagles album in 1973. This was when the Eagles were a little country/rock/folk LA band. They'd had some small hits. One of their writers Jack Tempchin was then and is now a local fixture here in Encinitas CA. (Already Gone, Peaceful Easy Feeling). They had not gotten too slick just yet. Slick but not too... They were new California kids with acoustic guitars singing about the desert, etc. But this one song... Ol' 55. Who is (writer:Tom Waits)? I was 13 years old and this song by the Eagles was different. Better even? I'd just moved down from LA that summer to this little southern CA beach town. 2 hours and a lifetime from LA. Freeways cars and trucks. That's LA man. But somehow this LA he was talking about was romantic. Sad and lonely, but romantic. Like Chandler did for LA in the 40's, this Tom Waits song... it's the 70's version of a romantic, sad LA dream. The morning after and the reality of those freeways cars and trucks... [YOUTUBE]Ob5XM2Xe9so[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ontological Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 I've been diggin' me some fleet foxes as of late and I found this video that was shot in the back of a British taxi cab. I guess it's a series called The Black Cab Sessions. After watching the Fleet Foxes I saw My Morning Jacket performed and thought I'd include that as well. [YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE] [/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rsadasiv Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 I started taking guitar lessons again this month (after a 24 year hiatus). Last week's lesson was (wait for it) the Rhythm Changes, so I listened to a whole bunch of Swing versions of "I Got Rhythm" and then a whole bunch of head arrangements of the Rhythm Changes. Barney Kessel is a guitarist that I had heard of but had never really listened to before. Here's one of the songs from my playlist: EMrv9aXOCnA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted September 18, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 I started taking guitar lessons again this month (after a 24 year hiatus). Last week's lesson was (wait for it) the Rhythm Changes, so I listened to a whole bunch of Swing versions of "I Got Rhythm" and then a whole bunch of head arrangements of the Rhythm Changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A Happy Crowd Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 Tom Waits always seemed like someone I would like, but I've avoided him since his catalog is large and diverse enough that I don't know where to start. Would you have any suggestions? As for what I've been listening to, I've had Mogwai on repeat over the past few days. I saw them in Boston a few months ago and it was such a beautiful and mesmerizing experience. I wish I was able to channel that sort of intensity into my own music. Here's a fan-made video for their song "Killing All The Flies." [YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted September 18, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 Tom Waits always seemed like someone I would like, but I've avoided him since his catalog is large and diverse enough that I don't know where to start. Would you have any suggestions? Yes. From three different periods ... earlier to later Small Change ('76) -- this was the first TW I ever had. This has equal parts of Tom the lounge crooner and beatnik poet. Swordfishtrombones ('83) or Rain Dogs ('85) -- maybe a slight preference for Rain Dogs. He's starting to branch out and get experimental. His wife, Kathleen Brennan, becomes very influential at this point. The songs are great, but they have very unusual wrappings. Mule Variations ('99) -- full blown carny/gospel/blues mixed with the brilliance of early Tom Waits songwriting. Robert Johnson on acid during a church tent revival having visions of tin pan alley songwriters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted September 18, 2009 Moderators Share Posted September 18, 2009 Edit: ^^^ beat me to it. Tom Waits always seemed like someone I would like, but I've avoided him since his catalog is large and diverse enough that I don't know where to start. Would you have any suggestions? Rain Dogs. Waits has 3 distinct eras. The first is his 70's singer/songwriter era. Great stuff. 2nd is his Island Records years. Swordfishtrombone, Rain Dogs, etc. 3rd are his more experimental, off the wall years. The reason I recommend Rain Dogs is because that album neatly straddles the 2 mindsets of the man. Traditional songwriting but with a taste of some crazy stuff to come. Rain Dogs starts using more adventurous instrumentation. Found percussion, crazy acoustic room signatures, acoustically filtered voice with megaphone type manipulations. It is a great album and would allow you to move either way in time through his catalog and have it make sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tbry Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 I will see a concert with CS&N tommorrow as a birthday present. Many acoustic influences and vocal harmonies that I still love today. [YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rhino55 Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 Mule Variations ('99) -- full blown carny/gospel/blues mixed with the brilliance of early Tom Waits songwriting. Robert Johnson on acid during a church tent revival having visions of tin pan alley songwriters. My personal favorite I was searching for some youtube clips of Ryan Horne but couldnt find anything that great. Most of the stuff on youtube is solo acoustic which is not bad, but it doesnt grab me in the same way his latest album did. Its called Love and War and I really like the way it is produced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rhino55 Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 I was curious so I went and youtubed The Eagles doing ol 55. It was a live version but was still pretty slicked up. That would have been cool to see them as a bar band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TravvyBear Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 Beach House, they've influenced not only my writing, but my style of production. 6CP_YuS9vVM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members easilyspooked Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 N728 ?how was your production influenced? what aspects of that style do you like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TravvyBear Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 N728 ?how was your production influenced? what aspects of that style do you like? Heavy reverb, simple drum beats, darker mix, droning organ/synths. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A Happy Crowd Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 Thanks for the suggestions. I look forward to checking them out (I think I'll start with his mid-period). Also, I enjoyed that Beach House song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members djhunt Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 The Incident.[YOUTUBE]qsxcp9MXU2I[/YOUTUBE] Porcupine Tree really never fails to amaze me. It feels like they are actually trying something different with little respect towards genre sales. Every time I listen to their albums, I get something new out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Viperbc1 Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 Been listening to a lot of early Jeff Beck , Beck, Bogert & Appice (sp) for example,, becks guitar on this album is really great, love his versions of "Superstitious", & Black Cat Moan" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chicken Monkey Posted September 18, 2009 Members Share Posted September 18, 2009 The early year, vol 1 is really good. Vol. 2 is a bit spotty, but there's some good stuff on both. I picked up a pile of Willie Nelson at the library on Wednesday, and love his writing. It's a perfect extension of the Golden Age-type writing I've been drawing from recently, and he really can take a weird phrase and turn it into a song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted September 19, 2009 Members Share Posted September 19, 2009 Stack & Lee Knight, listeners could do & usually end up doing a lot worse than early Tom Waits. I like him less after he became a certified fee-nom. But his early stuff just slays me. The dead art of orchestral Pop is my preferred milieu. Two masterpieces of that genre are: vcZ1k4d02KA A5BfjNdItBw I once orchestratrated a medley of "Town Without Pity" and "The Perry Mason Theme". If you listen to the originals- you'll see that they're the same song & almost the same orchestration. I suspect it was the Perry Mason theme that got Gene Pitney in the mood to write "Town Without Pity". That sound is magic to my ears. Unfortunately, the one instrument I had that was capable of sounding like that, an old Kawai K-1 synthesizer, is not functional at the moment. And I'm a lost soul without that 8 bit string pad sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members N88 Posted September 19, 2009 Members Share Posted September 19, 2009 Stuff I like the most right now in what I'll call music's 'song' realm: Asobi SeksuDeerhoofPortishead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TravvyBear Posted September 19, 2009 Members Share Posted September 19, 2009 Stuff I like the most right now in what I'll call music's 'song' realm: Asobi Seksu Deerhoof Portishead Really good stuff I like all those bands too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members grace_slick Posted September 21, 2009 Members Share Posted September 21, 2009 I've been re-inspired by The Beatles and want more of that sound in my songs (the later stuff, not early stuff) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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