04 LAST WORDS [012909]

Here you go. Don't be distracted by the few seconds of silence at the start of the track. It's an inexact science.


files.

Download 04_Last_Words_[012909].mp3

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Now for the fun part: the meandering and nonsensical post.

Site improvements:

None. Have been working on the father-abraham.com site for the past week, to no avail. I'll do the torrent thing, I promise. It's in my best interests. No new doodaddles or widgets or tallywhackers, though, I'm afraid.

Song details:

This one is pretty straightforward. I recorded that progression on a slow night back when I was working on I Am Not a Sailor I Am the Captain (release: late February, maybe?) at my old space in North Chelmsford. Have I shown you pictures? It was unique.

Here is a pic of the entire space, or at least the part that I occupied. The whole thing was about the dimensions of a squash court*

* for those of you familiar with the dimensions of a squash court.

Here is/was my vocal booth. Those boxes are covered and filled with plastic.* And the roof of the booth is made of my keyboard cases. Don't knock it. It did a good job.

*UPDATE - by which I mean, carpet. Don't know how that got in there.

Back to the song. That's me singing the hook and the background vocals. Pretty damn capable, no? I would like to think that I know my limitations, and singing is definitely one of them, but I can do all right when I write parts that make sense for my voice and put some good effects on there.

The instrumental was veering ever-so-close to rap ballad territory, so I decided to take it the execution route instead. In case you don't know, the rap ballad may be the most un-pull-offable song style in the entire world. Ever heard a suburban high school wind ensemble attempt to "get funky wit' it?" That's a rap ballad, but instead of awkward teens affecting possession of rhythm, it's a self-aggrandizing and often misogynistic (at least in character) adult attempting to convince you that he is sincere about one female in particular. Some rappers just ignore the content of the rap ballad altogether. Witness "My Love" by Justin Timberlake, featuring T.I. JT spends nearly the entire song talking about pursuing a fulfilling relationship with some woman or another (much easier to do when singing) and T.I. cuts in for his guest verse and raps about the exact opposite thing. WTF.

Long story short, I went with more of a Gary Gilmore sort of thing. Not that it was specifically about him; I wrote the chorus first and just sort of worked around it, and the words seemed to work well with his attitude toward his own execution. I think it works. I also like the abruptness of the second verse.

Man, that was happy.

Album I (was supposed to have) listened to this week:

Matmos, A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure. I am listening to it right now. All of the samples were collected from various surgeries and such. I guess the first song is liposuction. Gross. Good beats, though.

Feel free to send your suggestions for this section.

Links:

These are courtesy of Cassandra.

Woman with 15 inch waist.

Photoshop Disasters - a bit snarky, and at times a bit technical, but mostly fun. Notice the absence of Mr. King at the top left. Whoever did him did a bang-up job.

Donors:

Adding a list of donors. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. I really appreciate it. I'll continue to post the names of people who have donated. I like the first name-last initial thing. Personal, yet sufficiently anonymous.

Week 1: Glenn S., August D.
Week 2: Matt L.
Week 3: Brett Z.

That's it. Back next week with something a little more upbeat, I think.

Song Credits:

Mixed by Phil Gorey. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA