Wait, What DID You Say?

Was listening to the 22 January 2010 episode of NPR's Planet Money podcast (yes, I'm that far behind in listening to it), and realized I was listening to Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYIAfiVGluk



Or wait... is it a remix.  A visit to the blog referenced an artist I'd never heard of, Jason Derulo, singing "Whatcha Say."  Say what?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBI3lc18k8Q



New R&B song featuring tons of T-Pain-influenced Auto-Tune and an Imogen Heap sample.  Interesting that I don't like Derulo's use of Auto-Tune but do like the Imogen Heap use?  That's a good question.  After listening to the tracks, I think Derulo used a fairly simple processing that was totally unnecessary.  He seems to have a nice voice, and the stylization that this kind of Auto-Tune effect adds really just hides his voice.  The Imogen Heap use is really just part of an entire package of processing.  After listening carefully, I realized that the lead vocal track is only very subtly processed (except at very specific phrases).  There's actually a harmony track that seems to have been generated by heavily and severely processing the lead track.  That's where all the severe-pitch cutoffs are coming, not on the lead track (the vast majority of the time).  And at times it sounds like there are actually three vocal tracks: mostly unprocessed lead, echo-y effects lead, and heavily processed harmony.

The best part of the Derulo track is the Imogen Heap chorus.  It really stands out.  The re-mixing of that is actually pretty interesting.  It's sped up (and not pitch-corrected) over an interesting rhythm track with some interesting repeats.  I'd much rather have heard the producer remix the original track with some studio singer adding strategic vocals.

By the way, it's obnoxious for the opening non-Imogen Heap lyrics by Jason Derulo to be "Jason Derulo."  Of course, before that, the producer inserted his own name as a vocal.  I just read that it's his signature to do that.  How horrible would Quincy Jones's career have been if he insisted that his name open every track he produced?

Wow, I'm probably over-analyzing this.

NIN

John Remy asks:

How did I get through the last decade and a half w/o listening to NIN (well, beyond Closer)? There are times when Hurt could be my anthem...

Good question. Nine Inch Nails's Pretty Hate Machine was one of my angst soundtracks in high school (girls) and some of college (general stress and hate).

Aforementioned Hurt (NIN Live performance):






There are some notable covers, namely Johnn's Cash's Hurt:



Oh, and Sad Kermit's cover of Johnny's Cash's cover of Hurt:



From the album Broken, which came out when I was in college, NIN Wish:


(by the way, a comment had this right, the dead silence at 0:42 is amaaaazing).

From Pretty Hate Machine, Head Like a Hole:


Down In It:


Something I Can Never Have:

Making Out

A friend recounted a story of an intimate moment interrupted by his partner suddenly asking a question about lyrics.

"And then we both thought of you. Because of your misheard lyrics posts. Not because of anything weird."

Awkward pause.

Clearly the next logical question was...

"What song?"

I wasn't familiar with it, and upon hearing it, was puzzled.

"That's a bit faster than anything I'd play during an unspecified intimate moment."
"Um, well, it has a good beat."

I refrained from further questions.

But it did remind me to review my make-out playlist. It's an odd thing. I have no idea what I was thinking on some of these tracks, which clearly belong on a "sex it up" playlist, not a "make out" list.

And just to randomly drop some tracks on you,

"Clouds Up" - Air




"You Do" - Aimee Mann



"Les Professionnels" - Air

JUST THE FIRST TWO MINUTES!!!



"Sleepwalk" - Santo & Johnny



"Wicked Game" - Chris Isaak




"Ain't No Sunshine" - Bill Withers




"Justify My Love" - Madonna




"Something's Gotta Give" - Beastie Boys
(well, until I watched this video, anyway)

Cameo

Who would make a cameo in the movie about the current stage of your life?

Can't Sleep

I've been tossing and turning for a couple hours now.

What's in my YouTube "to watch" queue?

Mozart a la Bass Guitar

More Legion of Rock Stars

A recent Metafilter post reminded me of the existence of Legion of Rock Stars.

From their site:

Legion of Rock Stars (LRS) pioneered Pure Pleasure, in which the band listens to original recordings of classic rock and pop songs on 30db noise-blocking headsets, and then plays along.

Freed from the shackles of practicing, LRS focuses instead on bringing the excitement of a large stadium rock show to the intimate arenas in which it performs.

Get that? They don't practice. They can't hear each other. They can't hear their own voices or their instruments. All they can hear is the audio from the song/video that they're playing along with.

The results are hilariously awful!!!


I hate to lead with the best one, but...

Evenflow:
(You might or might not remember this as #3 on my unfinished series of College Soundtrack posts. Check it out for the original audio to the music video)



Too Legit To Quit:



Mmmbop:



The Good The Bad And The Ugly:



Total Eclipse of the Heart:



Horse With No Name:



Hunger Strike:
(You might or might not remember this as #6 in my unfinished College Soundtrack series. Yes, it has the original audio track to the music video in the post)



Take The Money And Run:



Barracuda:




Shout:
(You'll be tempted to skip, but don't)

Bass and Vocal - Esperanza Spalding

Stand-up bass and vocal. Wow.

YouTube Music Crush

Marie Digby has a record label which had the genius idea of having her cover pre-existing hits on YouTube without mentioning she was a signed artist. It's worked, and now she's an overnight success, two years later. I only have the benefit of seeing this in hindsight. But look at the makeup. And the lighting (clearly professionally lit). Anyone else doing iSight based video which looks that good? Still, she's doing catchy music, she's pretty, and her voice is pretty. Add gimmick and stir. How much time have I spent with theses songs playing in the background?!

Rihanna's "Umbrella":


Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right":


Linkin Park's "What I've Done":


Natalie Imbruglia's version of "Torn":


Joan Osborne's "One Of Us":

Musical Ex-Girlfriends

RyanH pointed me at The Shit Parade Show podcast.

We're Joel Church-Cooper, Erin Gibson, and Blake Walker, three twenty something Los Angeles comedy professionals, along with special guests, telling stories about how we've been shaped and influenced by music. We've packaged it into a neat little podcast named The Shit Parade Show (podcast).

The first episode is a pretty interesting topic: Musical Ex-Girlfriends.

Bands who you were once involved with, you loved them, you loved their music, and then over time, you fell out of love with them. And now they're still out there, existing in the world, doing they're own thing, and sometimes you hear them or run into them and you know that your lives have taken different paths. And you wonder, now that you don't like them as much, "Was it me? Was it who I was at the time? Or were they actually good and worth it?"

This is an easy one for me: Depeche Mode and Erasure. Same Euro-electronica genre, but completely opposite tones. I can listen to the stuff I was into and quickly re-connect with it, but I find it difficult to listen to entire songs. Well, except for singles off DM's Black Celebration album.

Hilarious comparisons of ex-favorite bands to ex-girlfriends on the podcast.

So who are your musical ex's?

Sergio Leone - Arcade Fire

Spoiler for Once Upon A Time In The West:

Legion of Rock Stars

Previously covered the song "Even Flow" by Pearl Jam. Well, here's the Legion of Rock Stars version. What's LRS?

Legion of Rock Stars (LRS) pioneered Pure Pleasure in which the band listens to original recordings of classic rock and pop songs on 30db noise-blocking headsets, and then plays along.

Freed from the shackles of practicing, LRS focuses instead on bringing the excitement of a large stadium rock show to the intimate arenas in which it performs.

Milk just came out of my nose.

More Shamisen

Like I said, it's been a rabbit-hole of discovery.

Shamisen vs. Tap:


Shamisen vs. Taiko:


Shamisen vs. Shamisen:


Shamisen vs. DJ:

(I admit that it's not as interesting at the others)

Yoshida Brothers

John Remy posted a few days back referencing the Yoshida Brothers, which has sent me on a rabbit-hole path digging up and listening to their non-traditional shamisen music. The piece he referenced was nice, but here are some of my favorites so far:


Kodo:


Where have I heard that before?! Oh yeah:


Storm (TM Mix) to some random anime:


Tsugaru Jongara:



They seriously rock.

Bah Humbug

Yes, Paul Potts singing a bit of Nessun Dorma was neat to watch.



But here's Andrea Bocelli doing it:


And here's Pavarotti:


My point is that it's an amazing piece of music, and a good performance of it will send chills up your spine. Combine that with an unassuming look, and you have your TV moment. But is he a professional level talent? I wonder.

College Soundtrack #7

Any revolutionary musical movement will have it's purely derivative acts, and the Seattle sound (aka Grunge) had Stone Temple Pilots. This is tough for me to listen to now, but at the time, was a definite favorite. The album itself is ... well, lets just say it's possible to have long arguments about which contemporary bands were the influence of each track.

To be fair, I saw one of the Alice In Chains members state that their band was a record company assembly, not an organically assembled group of musicians. I think his words were "grunge boy-band."


Enter Sandman - Metallica
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Even Flow - Pearl Jam
Waiting For Somebody - Paul Westerberg
Rooster - Alice In Chains
Hunger Strike - Temple Of The Dog
Plush - Stone Temple Pilots

College Soundtrack #6

Even more Seattle. Temple Of The Dog was an album/group put together as a tribute the lead singer of Mother Love Bone lead singer Andrew Wood, who died of a heroin overdose. It was comprised of members of Soundgarden, the surviving members of Mother Love Bone, and Eddie Vedder (Vedder and the MLB survivors were some of the members of Pearl Jam, already represented on this track list).



Enter Sandman - Metallica
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Even Flow - Pearl Jam
Waiting For Somebody - Paul Westerberg
Rooster - Alice In Chains
Hunger Strike - Temple Of The Dog

College Soundtrack #5

And Seattle just kept coming on strong. Band after band...


Enter Sandman - Metallica
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Even Flow - Pearl Jam
Waiting For Somebody - Paul Westerberg
Rooster - Alice In Chains



Bonus: The MTV Unplugged Performance of Rooster

College Soundtrack #4

The Seattle sound was a huge influence during my early college years (it might already be obvious). A big part of that was the forgettable movie "Singles" with the killer soundtrack. Cool tracks from Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Screaming Trees, and multiple tracks from Paul Westerberg. "Dyslexic Heart" was probably the best known Westerberg track, but I prefer "Waiting For Somebody."



Enter Sandman - Metallica
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Even Flow - Pearl Jam
Waiting For Somebody - Paul Westerberg

It might not be obvious why I'd have this song on my college-years soundtrack over some of the other rackss. That's mostly because I already have tracks from the other bands previously (or possibly planned). It's unfortunately true that multiple tracks from this movie soundtrack played in my personal soundtrack, but I felt that I should just pick one. This album was my gateway to Alice In Chains especially, and "Would?" is a huge track. Picking a representative track is a bit different from picking a favorite, isn't it?

No really good versions of a video for this track were on YouTube, so here are videos for other great songs from the Singles Soundtrack.

Nearly Lost You - Screaming Trees



Would - Alice In Chains



Battle of Evermore - Lovemongers (never knew that was the gals from Heart)



Drown - Smashing Pumpkins



Chloe Dancer / Crown Of Thorns - Mother Love Bone



Breath - Pearl Jam

College Soundtrack #3

CB's influence spans more than one song on my college-years soundtrack. He's responsible for the next pick as well. On one fateful evening in the evening of 2002, we watched Pearl Jam perform on Saturday Night Live. I only have vague memories of the performance, but CB's new music radar was working overtime. We were listening to Pearl Jam's album Ten within a fortnight.


Enter Sandman - Metallica
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Even Flow - Pearl Jam


[Addendum 20080201]



[Addendum 5/25/2007]

High Quality Sony Video @ Youtube


MTV Unplugged Version:

College Soundtrack #2

College is a time to make life-long friends, and I certainly made my share. When visiting Caltech for their spring recruiting trip (Pre-Frosh Weekend), one of the other prospective freshman I roomed with and I hit it off pretty well. We both chose to go to Tech, both ended up living in Fleming House, and decided to room together freshman year. CB was especially prescient about music trends, honing in on the Seattle sound well before the crowd. During that first semester 1991, we listened to Nirvana's album, Nevermind, well before it became a huge sensation. And of course the track that makes it onto my college soundtrack:

Enter Sandman - Metallica
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

Last month, I saw CB, his wife, and their new daughter (who is just adorable). And I neglected to ask him what the hot new band was going to be. We might be too old for him to know.

[Addendum 5/25/2007]
Video: