Members Stackabones Posted May 8, 2009 Members Share Posted May 8, 2009 What has influenced you in the past ... or since the last FIT? * I think I first heard about Chris Murray while researching recording techniques and the lo-fi aesthetic. One of his releases, Raw, was recorded entirely on a Sony Walkman. His writing is heavily ska- and reggae-influenced. He has a rather rich baritone and a wicked habit of crafting earworm melodies. It seems to me that he has a "less is more" approach songwriting and recording. Even his live shows (that I've caught on youtube) often just feature him with his guitar. Usually when you see someone singing with a guitar, the image of a cafe singer/songwriter strumming away and whispering their songs springs to mind. Chris Murray is propulsive and packs a groove. [YOUTUBE]86koVqRD8GQ[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 8, 2009 Members Share Posted May 8, 2009 Best thing new to me I heard this week was Mizter Koffy's remix of Artie Shaw's "Nightmare." It's a great tune by Shaw, with an ominous feel and some elegantly mean and supremely fluid clarinet. The Mizter Koffy remix sounded especially good after what struck me as a thoroughly incompetent remix by Giacomo Bondi of Les Brown's normally lovely "Laura" (the eery theme from the great noire-ish mystery of the same name). The two songs were adjacent on Big Band Remixed and Reinvented and could not possibly be more differenent. Bondi's nightmarish trainwreck of a mix was a prime example of a remix by someone with absolutely no feel for the beat -- he tried to drop his own beat into the track and it was a horrid, out of time, inappropriate mess that kept wavering rhythmically... and what additional elements there were were clumsy and inappropriate. Clearly a remix by someone with no understanding of the material or rhythm. (There's a lot of that sort of thing on these big remix comps of big band, lounge and pop -- apparently the result of people who are probably challenged trying to understand a house beat, let alone something with swing syncopation.) Mizter Koffy (who might just be related to a couple of fellows from my old high school, judging by family name and location), on the other hand, fielded a solid reinvention of the Shaw tune, a from-the-ground-up reworking that showed a lot of heavy deconstruction/re-construction and a solid understanding of contemporary beats and how to break up and recombine elements from something like a scratchy old '78. Fine work, looking all the more hip and proficient in contrast to the Bondi effort, yet another horrible-beat-destroying trainwreck mix on a major remix comp. The other tracks on Mizter Koffy's MySpace page [same link as above] I think, show the same solid understanding of both his source and his target genres. And finally getting around to reading his bio on his MySpace page, I can see one good reason he knows his way around a beat: he's a drummer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted May 8, 2009 Moderators Share Posted May 8, 2009 My influence this week is the logical lineage between Status Quo, Zeppelin, Deep Purple... and Jack White. The Raconteurs, one of Whites "side projects" (who I much prefer to White Stripes and I love White Stripes), the Raconteurs got roots. Rock roots. In love with with Since I've Been Lovin' You just as much as Ballroom Blitz... Jack White has a sense of humor for sure, but never just "cracks a musical joke". He digs into his roots with joy and creates something new that crackles and is alive, just like the stuff he's drawing from. Note the Status Quo lift... [YOUTUBE]Q7aOWIFgIZQ[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]j1cJFIGHkJA[/YOUTUBE] And then... I wonder what a garage rock Rush would sound like? If we dumbed down Tom Sawyer and arranged it for The Seeds. Like this I guess: [YOUTUBE]9B7npSXQkxE[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted May 8, 2009 Members Share Posted May 8, 2009 I'm not much on Reggae Stack. But I love the sound of the recording. I wish I could do my stuff in lo-fi. And I am very pro Lo Fi. ----There was a two page discussion about this song HERE. There is an article here that deconstructs this song and compares the song to de Chirico's paintings, to Ezra Pound's definition of poetry and to the astonishing insights of a schizophrenic named "Renee". de Chirico wrote: "It is necessary to go about living in the world, as if in an immense museum of strangeness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted May 8, 2009 Members Share Posted May 8, 2009 Great thread! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rhino55 Posted May 8, 2009 Members Share Posted May 8, 2009 I posted a thread in SSS about it already but.... www.playingforchange.com has had me inspired all week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted May 8, 2009 Author Members Share Posted May 8, 2009 I posted a thread in SSS about it already but.... www.playingforchange.com has had me inspired all week Just checked out Chanda Mama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 8, 2009 Members Share Posted May 8, 2009 I posted a thread in SSS about it already but....www.playingforchange.com has had me inspired all week This is an extraordinarily cool -- and ultimately, for me, deeply moving -- collection of collaborative, overdubbed performances by musicians recorded in open air situations around the world and assembled through the magic of modern production gear. The music is wonderful but the vids wonderfully tie the performances together and capture the amazing magic of music made by a far-flung 'band' comprised of everyone from bluegrass banjo pickers to Indian sitarists with a wide spread of instruments and wonderful singers from all over. [i guess it's been banging around the popular culture for a while but my antipathy for the mechanisms of that popular culture every once in a while temporarily filter out some baby along with a flood of bathwater... er... so to speak. Anyhow, big thanks to rhino for posting this earlier in Craig's forum. Really, really... neat.] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mpeddle Posted May 8, 2009 Members Share Posted May 8, 2009 This week, I was influenced by the sound of screaming to be heard over guitars that are too loud with a PA that's not quite loud enough. It made me sing a better melody. But it sure wasn't good for my voice that night, hahah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted May 8, 2009 Moderators Share Posted May 8, 2009 I think, show the same solid understanding of both his source and his target genres. And finally getting around to reading his bio on his MySpace page, I can see one good reason he knows his way around a beat: he's a drummer. That guy's great. Never heard his work before. But yeah... great observation about his feel for pocket. And nice sense of history too. The different elements all merging into his very cool Artie Shaw stew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted May 8, 2009 Moderators Share Posted May 8, 2009 That is fantastic. Sinatra is nailing it, and I was mesmerized by Jobim's guitar playing. Just watching his cool, subtle groove alternating between his thumb and his mellow clawed upstrokes. Hypnotic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 8, 2009 Members Share Posted May 8, 2009 Jobim, Bonfa, Baden-Powell... those guys are like gods to me -- but my number one, hands down favorite Brazilian is Jo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted May 9, 2009 Members Share Posted May 9, 2009 I always loved all the Gilbertos. Joao, Astrud and Bebel. One of my best albums is Sony's collection of Astrud's greatest hits. There are two Gil Evans' orchestrations on that are without question, the greatest arrangements I've ever heard -- period. The CD ranges from Gil Evans' orchestration of Jobim to ultra-Lounge Sixties Nouveau. Bossa, like the Waltz and Tango, are timeless. Long after the world has forgotten Rock, and a lot of the other stuff we've listened to in our lifetimes, it will remember the Bossa Nova, the Tango and the Waltz. All three are about passionate love. Music changes. Passionate love does not. Bossa Nova to me, is the music of youth & eternal summer - not the Beach Boys. I've composed more Bossas BTW, than I have waltzes. I couldn't find the Gil Evans/Astrud collaborations on Youtube. But how about this gateway between Bossa & Ultra Lounge -- the late Walter Wanderly's "Summer Samba". (He was Brazilian BTW.) NTasA5hkRFY French artists understood the romance potential of the Bossa. Here is the greatest of all French Bossas. Vietnamese college girls love this song, BTW. I'll often hear a student say, "Teacher, play bon bon chocolate,". xdRElky_9-I They don't understand the words. They don't need to. The Bossa speaks directly to us. We don't need to understand Portugese or French. That's the non-English language test I was talking about the other night. If a non-English speaker loves your music. You've nailed it. On this page, the two songs that grabbed my GF's attention were the Sinatra/Jobim duo and of course, bon bon chocolate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 9, 2009 Members Share Posted May 9, 2009 There are some Walter Wanderly/Astrud things kicking around that are pretty neat, for sure. When I was in junior high, all the other kids were listening to the Beach Boys... me, I was ticked because I had thought surf music was coming in when I heard that was the next big thing -- so I was crushed to find that really meant stuff like Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys (though I like the later 60s BB stuff, as is nearly mandatory now ). And then my beloved twist (the last dance I knew how to do in the 60s) was bumped by all the new discotheque dances with the weird animal names (bird, monkey, worm... oh, wait, that last one was later )... But when an actual jazz player ended up on the radio with a breathy voiced girls singing those exotic vocals, it was instant buy in. At first, I didn't get Joao... but someplace along the way, though, I actually became a bigger fan of Joao... though I'll always love Astrud. It's kind of like my Yamaha G130a classical. I got it in an 'emergency' after my little bungalow got cleaned out and I lost my steel dreadnaught. I was a little disappointed that I was getting a nylon string guitar but I was definitely glad to have it come to me as it did (a friend called me up and said, I heard you got ripped off, you're a guitar player, you need a guitar, my brother in law has one for sale cheap -- and it was) and it's been a 35 year love affair. I have more expensive guitars but... you can't play boss nova on them like you can on the battered old Yamaha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Drumas funk Posted May 9, 2009 Members Share Posted May 9, 2009 I posted a thread in SSS about it already but.... www.playingforchange.com has had me inspired all week I had seen the Stand By Me episode on BETJazz (the only good thing i've seen on it that channel in quite awhile) and loved it. I'm glad you brought it up, I'm going to watch all of them now. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 9, 2009 Members Share Posted May 9, 2009 I'm a big fan of Playing for Change Episode 7; apologies for forgetting the name of the song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GoVols Posted May 9, 2009 Members Share Posted May 9, 2009 In before midnight, Eastern. Well, if I type fast enough... Here's my favorite band right now. The Greencards. A couple of Aussies, a Brit and an 18 year old guitar picker from Atlanta. Anywhos, I saw this group open for Tommy Emmanuel a couple of years ago and they blew me away. Strong bluegrass influences (they can pick like nobody I've never seen before - ), but the last couple of CD's seem to be moving more into an alt-country style. Perhaps that is where the payola is - I suppose. They're touring extensively again this year and coming to my favorite local folk house, Eddie's Attic, next month. This is a recent clip of them doing a cut off their new CD. The song is called 'Outskirts of Blue'. Obviously, an audience recording, so not all that polished, but you'll get the idea of their sound. Hope you enjoy. [YOUTUBE]LrnECkQT_qo[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ido1957 Posted May 9, 2009 Members Share Posted May 9, 2009 This week I wrote the lyrics for Heartbreaker (see my post), trying hard to make it as different as possible from the "known" versions. I'd be lying if I didn't say the "theme" from the old tunes didn't influence me...albeit a universal theme... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted May 10, 2009 Members Share Posted May 10, 2009 I really liked that song "Outskirts of Blue". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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