Challenges galore: a SLuiCe cover!

Pedullist

Pedullist

Stop it, I can't breathe
OK...I had a day off. I started at 9:00am in the morning, and at 5:00pm I'm more or less finished and I really have to start cooking dinner for my wife. ;)

Anyway, the challenges for today were:

- cover a song by SLuiCe (ouch, difficult stuff...especially when you pick a song that's just one tiny note out of yer friggin' vocal range)
- try to make it a Trojka song, and not to copy Tom's version completely.
- sing in english (ouch again....weird, my intonation and breath control is terrible when I sing english, like I'm paying to much attention to my diction......anyway.....your time to cringe, Tom! LOL :D)
- don't demo it first, slam it on disk immediately...we ain't got no time to lose you know? My wife will be home at 6:00pm
- not to be lazy, and make a good drumpart straightaway (instead of making a dull scratch part, and fixing it later during the week)
- play a good guitar solo for a change :)
- 95% finish it within 8 hours :eek:

I'm sure I'll be working on little bits (what the hell happened to that cister note right after the first chorus?) the next weeks, and I'm very sure I'll retrack the vocals. It needs to mixed better also. The ending is a bit weird. Don't know what to think of it. It sounds like a 'shit, it's 5:00pm already!' ending...LOL :D

But this is it, Tom. Your music is the best. Inspiring as hell....and despite the fact you're a genius, you're still sickeningly humble and modest. Love ya man! :)

(btw, I have no idea why my King Crimson influences poured out in this one)

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2618&alid=462

Btw, Tom's own beautiful version of A Brother With Wings can be found here:

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1469&alid=-1
 
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cool...very much in a style, that is probably your own. A lot of work shows here, especially for the short amount of time you spent with it. I'm not going to nitpick stuff, especially with the mix. I'll let others have their way with you this time. Instead, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy a great sounding tune for once around here without trying to analyze something to death.
I liked it very much and need to go back and listen to the SluCie version, I guess.

Really liked the rokx guitar towards the end. That was nice.
 
Thanks, Mix! Glad you liked...

Yeah, it goes without saying (I guess) my ears are screwed after 8 hours of monitormixes...

So the mix sucks! :)
 
mixmkr said:
I'll let others have their way with you this time.
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I can't pass that invitation up. :D

So you can sing in english as well as write? Not bad for a dutchman.

I love the bass sound and playing. Good feel to the tune. I never heard the original (or can't remember) so I can't compare totally. Kind of like the thin keyboard section in the middle - with the big kick of guitars coming out.

It passes the Trip pop test.

Bring up the vox :D.

Only 8 hours? Real good. Trip...
 
Ped covering a SLuiCe song. How can anyone pass that up?

You took Tom's shortest song ever and made it long...lol.

First off, let me say your take on this song was fantastic. I love the sounds you chose, the feel, etc. Doing one of his songs can't be easy. There is so much to take in.

Bass sounds great per usual. Vocals need more meat. The singing and harmonies were good. They just need a little more muscle in the mix. They sound a little thin.

I like the drums. They could use a little more meat too, but I understand they are part of the feel. So I''m not sure there.

Overall, I think it is great....fantastic for a day's work!

By the way I listened to Tom's version too again. Way cool interpretation!!!
 
My lawyers will be in touch...

Actually what a cool surprise man! I come home from work and find a cover of...of...ahh...

Shit, I still have no idea what song you covered. Guess I gotta go to your site and find out. Be back shortly man...




[Edit: Oh cool, it's "Brother.."! Hey by the way while I'm downloading, Fprod South did a really cool cover of "Feathers and Bones" as part of one of the HRC's. If you haven't heard it, check it out. It's maddening. If it's not on his NWR site, I've got a copy.]
 
Damn dude. That's terrific. I'm a bit biased of course :) But that's a damn creative rendition!

It's fucking "dance SLuiCe". Well, sorta. LOL.

NICE rock guitars!

Beautiful man. Honored and humbled. Seriously.

AND I dig the your accent on this. I'm thinking of putting this on the CD and telling folks that I do great Dutch impressions. :)

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The mix needs a lot of work. You know that. Please please please give this a proper mix when you get your ears back and give me the full wave file via Instant Messenger.

Thank you for the efforts... I am impressed, Tjarko. Obviously I already knew you had great skills, but I am impressed nonetheless. And I've now had two excellent covers done of my music thanks to this bbs. Too fucking cool.

Tom
 
Yeah, I know Fprod South's cover...it's friggin' great...I remember screaming 'covering a SLuiCe song....now that's courage!' at him, LOL :D Now look at me!

I'm so glad you like it! :D

A day well spent.

I worried a bit about missing the lyrical point, making it so eh....dancy yet dark. Perhaps you'd think I destroyed your song!

Aesthetically speaking your own version is better, I think. More space, much better for the song and lyrics. Because I was ashamed of my voice in english, I kept on adding new harmonies....cover up that ugly lead vocal.....o well, if you like harmonies it's cool....LOL

I'm listening to it again. Boy, a lot of work still needs to be done. Retracking (the cister part, and the words 'stand still' ugh!), mixing. I get goosebumps myself when I hear it though....I recorded it in a rather subconsious mood. I have no idea where some of the parts come from. They weren't in your version, right? *checks original version* WTF? There's a whole damn lot I ignored! :D

But....I'm glad everything that was in my head is out of it now. I'll work on it the next weeks...I'm sure I can make it better.
 
I worried a bit about missing the lyrical point, making it so eh....dancy yet dark.
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In fact, I believe you hit the nail on the head with this approach. I really do. The reason I think this is because I think you successfully "ported" the contrast of light and dark (verse to chorus) over to your own version. Yours seems to include the same sense of understanding, acceptance and closure that I tried to paint in mine. And it also includes some elaboration that I thought was great. I'd like to know what your wife thinks of it. Especially if she hears it without knowing it's a cover. :) But I'm probably too late for that request.
 
Aren't Tom's tunes fun to cover?!:)
You picked a good one too, and not surprisingly did a very cool Trojka version.

Lots of cool changes in there that work so fluidly together. It's one of those listen to many times arrangements so you can hear all the different subtle stuff going on. (Like that right speaker thing at 2:40. What the fuck was that - awesome!). Love the rock out part at 3:17. Love the weirdness at the end.

Tasteful use of synth by the way.;)

Can't wait for the remix.
 
Jeez... it WOULD have to be a Gagne-Green song that came along when a certain "party-pants" was AWOL :D

What I'm trying to say is... I WISH this could have the same potential impact on me as if, for instance, you covered a SLuiCe song I was actually familiar with!! :D :eek: :( IOW... this would hit me harder if I'd been here when SLuiCe first posted it...

That being "said"... I'll listen to this NOW (and EVENTUALLY hear Tom's version :p)


Signature odd time signatures :D Ah, this MUST be a Gagne-green song...

GOOD singing Ped. Nice harmonies! Great BASS as usual. Cymbals sound a little "live" ... nice gtr leads... (electrics...) have to go back and decide if that wasn't just a keyboard electric guitar :D

Vocs get low in volume, IMO... and could use some clarity. Do you track vocals with compression? Or, do you add it later?

This thing sounds wonderful... there's so much flavor in it. Would also like to hear some of that funky Tom Gagne-green panning too!!

The raw tracks sound like they're in there... but there's not much variation yet... as far as production (panning/verb/etc...)

LOVE that electric @ about 3:15!! Sweet!! Man, he loves his Floyd, doesn't he? You can just hear some digested David Gilmour in those licks, can't you? :D

You've done a great job, Ped! (And a great cover, he said pre-emptively!! :D)


Chad w/5
 
Very nice!
I went and listened to Tom's version first...thanks for putting that link up.......it's a very good interpretation of the tune. You definitely avoided doing it just like Tom but kept the feeling of the original.
A good day's work......
Oh,...BTW....I had your CD waiting for me when I got back......I'm gonna go listen to it in a little while.
 
Wow man, ......very nice cover of a great tune. I REALLY dig the fact that you took this to your own place. ...and did the song justice. Very nice playing throughout this. Nice vocal interpretation too.... in 8 hrs??? Thats a ton a work man... .....I wish my pace were that fast.

Great stuff here..... musically and creatively. Definitely put the mix work into this, because i want that version too. :)
gw/5!!!
 
This is gonna be a Studioviols-length post! ;) :D

TripleM: thanks....but eh...no pops? ;) Yeah, I know....vocals should be louder, but I'm ashamed of my voice when I sing in english. Let's retrack them first, then we'll see. As of right now, I'm cringing myself everytime I hear it. So many out-of-tune/badly timed notes. Typical 'I don't know how to sing this yet' problem. I guess for what the vocals are concerned, this IS a demo. Everything I wanted to have is in this version, but I need to tighten it up and practice it. Hey, I always write stuff I can't play or sing, only after a couple of days/weeks of practice. Which is actually a good thing...:)

B.SABBATH: thanks man!

skids: read response to Trip...thanks! Thanks for your comments on the drums...I think it's my best programming yet (well, Van Jou Een Vrouw was pretty good too....seems like I'm finally know how to do it)

SLuiCe: I know you like the accent, but how bad is it really? Not fishing for compliments here ('do I look fat in this dress?' LOL), but I just wanna know whether I do really stupid things or just little weird things pronunciationwise...some sounds are really difficult to make for me (I have a speech empidement in dutch too, so my silibances are as bad in english as they are in dutch). When I'm singing I think it always sounds pretty OK, but when I listen to it back it's awful! (IMO of course)

O, hey! I missed a verse! (In the dark we're paralyzed)

fprod south: yeah, they are fun to cover! I was thinking about a song of yours too btw. And Chris Harris/Crawdad have passed my mind also :eek: (to get out of my rut a little, but as it turned out a SLuiCe cover was enough challenge for me)...

The funny thing was, it wasn't a conscious choice. I just picked Brother. Started working on it without checking how it exactly sounded, whether I could pull it off. Later on I discovered that the high vocal part in the chorus was one note too high (the high F#). But....I managed to sing it. Sometimes selfconfidence can give you wings (or an extra octave in your vocal range, thanks Tom for unconsciously pointing that out :) )

O, the right speaker thing is a Bb on a basic C chord, a 7th (played with mellotron strings). It's surprising sometimes how little additions to your chords and harmonies can change the mood or open up your arrangement. Toy with it sometime, it's very cool.

Doug H : ah, and I take it that the rest sucked? LOL :D No, don't answer it man....not fishing for compliments here either. :) Glad you liked...

participant: thanks...hehehe, who needs keyboard guitars when you can have real guitars (I have three). I only use synths for instruments I don't own (strings, piano, rhodes, mellotron, organ) and for nutty sounds. About the vocals: for the first time I recorded them without a compressor, I added the compressor later. I don't know yet, what I like better. The sound of the Meek colors my voice for sure...but I kinda like that.

It's funny, I've never liked Pink Floyd (tried 9 :eek: albums, but it just didn't tickle me).....yet I like everything Tom writes. :)

caryindy: thanks, please keep it on your hard drive until the next version and then delete this version. The vocals WILL get better.

Lt. Bob: thanks Steve! Hope you like the CD!

Guernica: yeah, it was hard work for sure (sometimes I work harder at home in my studio than at my actual work :eek: ). I tried having a 30 minute break, but I felt I was losing inspiritation/concentration so I quickly started as soon as I had eaten my lunch (then I had to sing with a peanutbutter mouth...:) )

I'll be off to Brussels for a few days. For fun, spending some time on (or is it 'with'? what the heck, hopefully it's 'on' too LOL :D) my wife again. A good way to clean my ears too.

I'm still thinking about asking Edgar (the Jamiroquay guy) for the vocals...(he's amazing in english)
 
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Very cool spin on a really interesting tune. Love that riff in there. Great sound on those heavy guitars. The vocals were cool but seemed a little lost. Maybe they just need to be louder, not necessarily retracked.
 
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