larcollins|music - "Boyfriend"

I'm starting a new feature here to showcase my work in music. Here's entry number 1!

I've never been a prolific songwriter. I love the process, but inspiration tends to be a fleeting thing. I may crank out one to two songs a year at the most. To be a professional in that area you have to crank out at least one a day! It doesn't always have to be good, but that's the workout you have to give yourself to build up your songwriting muscle.

Because of this I decided to shift my focus to music production. I've always produced my own stuff - stuff I've written - but I wanted to see what the process would be like producing someone else. Low and behold, it's a lot more fun to play with someone else's song! I've discovered doing your own stuff is kind of like giving yourself a haircut.

Below is a song written and sung by my friend Cyndi Vellmure. I played bass in Cyndi's band for a few years and had some of her demos laying around. I decided to take one of those demos, chop it up in my recording software (Reaper) to fix the timing and see how well I could frost that cake. For comparison here is the original demo with just guitar and vocal I consider this my first official foray into music production work.  Now I need to find more songwriters to work on my production muscle.  If you know anyone who wants their song produced for free, send them my way.

Music: Great Remakes "I Can't Go For That"

Oh Hall & Oates, you have returned to my blog. However, Nicki Bluhm and The Gamblers this is, surprisingly, your first appearance. Which is a shame because performing great cover versions of songs while riding around in a van seems to be something you at which you excel. Excellent!

The interesting thing for me is that if you knew me really well, you'd know that I don't particularly like covers or cover bands. The true treasure is finding a band whose original material is just screaming for the world to discover. But even I can admit to a good cover when I hear it. And being that said, "I Can't Go For That" is one of my favorite Hall & Oates songs. The fact that they do an great cover of it with stripped down instruments in the confines of a vehicle is really pretty darn cool.

Aaaand as I watch more Nicki Bluhm cover song videos, the gimmick sort of wears off. I'd be more interested in them as a band if "I Can't Go For That" happened to be a one off goof kind of thing and the rest of their videos were of original material. But, nice try guys.

Music: Great Remakes "Rikki Don't Lose That Number"

I stumbled on this one because I am an avid reader of AVClub.com's TV reviews. Just the reviews. A lot of times I don't even watch the TV show their reviewing. I mean just yesterday I couldn't pass up reading the review for the series finale of "Rules of Engagement" because I was fascinated the show lasted 7 seasons. It just seemed kinda there for millions to watch and simultaneously forget about while they watched. Anyway, I decided to click the music tab on AVClub one day and saw their Undercover series. Bands covering other bands songs. I saw someone decided to redo Steely Dan's "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and couldn't resist. I love the Dan and this is one of my favorite songs by them. The cover artist, Hospitality, I had never heard of...
Hospitality covers Steely Dan Color me impressed! Hospitality impressed me so much with their solid musicianship I decided to check out their own music. Color me impressed, again. Although they've got this precocious hipster alt rock sound which I figure some could find annoying, they're just a solid, good band with good songs. Period.

Music: Great remakes "What A Fool Believes"

A while back (way back) I did a couple posts about remakes of songs I thought were better (or at least as good) as the original.  Today I present a remake of the Doobie Brothers "What A Fool Believes" done by one of my favorite, criminally underrated, under-served, spectacularly unknown, auteurs of the ridiculously catchy pop song, "bands" called Self.  But before I get into how good this remake is, I'm going to slightly detour into personal confession space.

Damn, this song.  You ever notice how how certain songs you love really paint a picture of your life?  It's like my TV theme song.  You know, if there existed a TV show about me, the opening credits would be of me blissful and ignorantly walking down the street waving hi to all the co-stars portraying my friends - with this song playing along in the background.  Oh the misadventures we'd have!  All because of my dogged insistence of trusting my feelings.

Of course I'm learning it's good thing, nay, great thing to trust your feelings (gut instincts I say).  It has served me well in many instances of my life.  However, what is really weird is how the things I feel the most impassioned and sure about have yet to pan out.  And I'm stuck with what seems to be.  Well it's better than nothing.  Better than nothing at all.

Back to the song.  I love Self.  I love this remake.  But I do feel the original is the best version.  However, due to the fact this version was recorded entirely on toy instruments elevates it to equal status in my eyes.  I mean, try fixing stuff with toy tools and see how far and frustrated you get.  Well done, Matt Mahaffey.  Well done.

(side note - why I call Self a "band" is because it's mainly the outlet of talented producer/songwriter Matt Mahaffey.)