Busking The Head and the Heart

tombo1230
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Tue Jul 10, 2012 4:26 am

Wow man that was very well done you guys. A new song to me, but just brilliant! Great singing and playing. Only thing that would improve this would be to place the drums more central or less one sided in the mix, with vocals more prominant. A mere detail, this was...... did I say it was brilliant!? B) :)

Great job guys! :) Glad Jerry has bounced back from his recent illness.


Tom N.


lueders
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Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:22 am

Yay!! Jerry's Back!!! :) :) :)
So great to see you again..
I enjoyed this thoroughly, fellas!!

This was obviously a great upload from you two!!
And I absolutely DIG this tune!! (gonna check into 'em further)

This is sort of a jangly, early R.E.M.-meets-the-Byrds kinda vibe going on in this tune.
I really like the lyrics to this song as well.
I love Jerry's bass...he does such fine job on it!! And, yep your voices really sound nice together...I concur with those who mentioned this.

* I hope we get a chance to hear Tweeter & The Monkeyman one of these days.
* Do you guys take requests? There is a song that I absolutely love called "Sick Of Myself" by Matthew Sweet.(later covered by Death Cab 4 Cutie) It might seem like an out of leftfield request...but for some reason I can totally hear you two guys doing this tune!!!
( It came out in the mid-nineties.) The peppy, upbeat tune tinged with slightly melancholy lyrics is a formula you guys pull off like nobody's business!
I like how you guys are out to have fun with good songs irregardless of genre or era. ( I love that!)
Anyways, check out the tune and see what ya think...

Super Fellas!!!

Cori


Catman
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Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:37 pm

I really enjoyed that. Welcome back Jerry!


Hydroman52
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Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:54 pm

Daryl – Thanks for the kind remarks. It’s good to be back rehearsing with Jerry. He’s saying that he has a lot more energy than before and it does show. I agree that he does a good job on vocals here. We have a bit more room to move things around in the garage, so we are able to set things up more for performance. Kept the camera angle thing in mind when setting this up because of past comments on our videos. Lighting is poor and it makes the video grainy. The camera doesn’t do too well in low light conditions. We are working on better lighting. Harmonies? Yes, I definitely get to sing in my girly-girly voice. Doesn’t bother me as much now, but there was a time I wouldn’t have attempted this . . . . it’s more sort of a manly-manly embarrassing thing.

Craig – I hadn’t heard of this group until about a half-year ago. Jerry and I prefer to work on “flip-side” songs and ones that haven’t been played too much by cover bands. Thanks for watching.

Jason – Good to hear from you. Your friend has good taste. There are a couple of other songs by this group that I like. This one caught both our attention the first time we heard it. I’m glad we revisited it. I would call it a song with a high rate of return. For the small amount of time that we had to put into it to get it to this point, it’s got a lot of energy and really shines in a live performance.

Hi Michele – Jerry will be happy to see your comment. Sometimes our drummer gets a little out of hand. Actually, I reworked the drum track after watching this and brought some stuff down. We also added a volume pedal for the drums so Jerry can adjust the volume on the fly. Thanks for watching.

CO (assuming you are from Colorado?) – Thanks for watching, and thanks for the compliment. Since I’ve been hanging out here, songs like these are much easier for me to bring up to this point quickly. Of course, Jerry is a natural at it.

Bob – I think it’s a fairly new song and from a more Northwest USA regional band, although I see that they are now getting more exposure by making the radio station and Internet circuit. I think they are in the “almost famous” category. Others that know their music better may argue that . . . . . Thanks for watching!

Marc – Appreciate the compliments. For the drums, the first thing I do is go to a karaoke site and see if they have a “Custom Accompaniment” version of the song that I can purchase and download individual tracks for $2.99US for each song. For a few bucks, I get all the instrumental tracks in any combination that I want. You can also isolate the tracks so you can study each individual instrument, vocals, and harmonies. This can save me a half day or more of composing a drum track and is well worth the money. I will send you a PM with a link to the Guess Who – No Time so you can check it out. If I can’t find a custom song on the karaoke site, then I start from scratch using a computer program called Drumsite. It is a standalone program and doesn’t need a DAW in order to run it. Like anything, it has its quirks, but once you get them figured out, you can get quite efficient with it. I will PM that link, too. Once I have a complete drum track, Jerry transfers it to a DigiTech JamMan looper via an analog cable. We have added a footswitch (to select the tracks) and a volume pedal to the JamMan so that he can switch between tracks, start them, and fine tune the volume on-the-fly and all hands-free. In this video, we are feeding the drum signal into a Bose T1 Tonematch unit and then into a Bose L1 Model II system with two B1 bass modules. The drums seem to sound quite good in a smaller venue through this setup. When I’m at home, I just play it through my computer speakers (a Dell package with a subwoofer) and it is adequate. Hope this helps (and makes sense).

Chris – Great therapy, absolutely! Thank for watching.

Tom – I agree with you on the drums and vocals. I’m afraid I botched the recording part. The volume levels had been set up for the upstairs studio, and I didn’t do a very careful sound check on the recording levels when I moved the stuff to the garage. All the room recording mic levels were set too high and became distorted. Of course, I didn’t realize this until I started putting the video together. The two tracks that were not distorted didn’t give me many options for the final mix. I’m glad you noticed and let me know about it. Thanks for watching.

Cori – Thanks for all the nice words. You have a lot of energy and a PMA (Positive Mental Attitude). Checked out the Mathew Sweet version and will look into the Death Cab 4 Cutie one, too.

Catman - Thanks for watching. Jerry appreciates all the good wishes.


cosmicmechanic
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Wed Jul 11, 2012 8:22 pm

Hi! Dro! Man!
You and Jerry are quite an item. This is the kind of thread that keeps on giving, such an entertaining show and then lots of great tech details.
Please keep playing these low cholesterol tunes together, so that there will be lots more of them for a long time to come.

Oh, has Jerry ever tried tub-bass ? Could be very fine on this type of tune (but may be seen as a technological demotion).

Again, stuffingly good stuff !
Pierre


tovo
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Thu Jul 12, 2012 12:46 am

That is kool and the gang guys. I really liked it. A really nice vibe that I can't really put my finger on in terms of style, but I know I dug it and that's all that matters. Glad to see everyone up and about as well.


dennisg
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Fri Jul 13, 2012 11:05 am

That was really cool. Nice, smooth playing, excellent singing, great harmonies.


suziko
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Fri Jul 13, 2012 2:57 pm

That was really beautiful, guys! Loved the harmonies and the guitar! Nice to see the two of you back together again!

Suzi


Hydroman52
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Sun Jul 15, 2012 9:04 am

Pierre - I'll have to talk with Jerry about the tub-bass idea. I think it's the musical saw of the stringed instruments. He's usually up for a challenge.

Tony, Dennis, Suzi, - Thanks for the kind words and well wishes. Your opinions are highly valued here. Jerry will be glad to see them.

Hydroman52


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