- Arms of Love - the Munson arrangement of the Robyn Hitchcock song, played in G with C cross-harp.
- Dear Prudence - pretty faithful version of the Beatles' original, with a few changes to make it work better on solo acoustic. Guitar was plugged in for this show, and sounded particularly good on this song.
- It Doesn't Matter Anymore - Eva Cassidy arrangement of the Paul Anka song, again played in G with C cross-harp.
- Girl #134 - the Matthew Munson original, but with an unauthorized bridge snuck in there while the author wasn't looking. I fell into the trap I always do with no drummer, and played it a too slow a tempo.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Swamptooth Live - 26 October, 2011
Third appearance in four weeks a Old Torrance Coffee & Tea. This time with Don Varner in attendance, though not playing.
Swamptooth Live Again
Swamptooth, Live, Again
Old Torrance Coffee & Tea
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Songs performed:
I launched straight into "It Hurts Me Too" with no introduction. I explained it as an Elmore James song. Did it in C, with a G harmonica, played cross-harp. I was very happy with this one, having learned it a few days earlier and practiced quite a bit. I did the whole show "unplugged," that is with only a single microphone for amplification. I had a bad experience with my guitar plugged in the previous time, and didn't want to risk it.
"Big Tin Truck" was my own song, but played like the Black and Blue High Desert Mystery arrangement. Well, without the band. What I mean is that I sang the Munson words in the bridge. I dedicated this song to Wayne Davis, the resident truck driver and country singer, but he wasn't there to hear it. He had the flu or something.
"The Dark End of the Street" I introduced as a Motown song turned country, which I had just learned this week. However I was called out on it, because it was in actuality a stealth Gram Parsons cover, a fact I readily confirmed. For some reason, my voice is well suited to this one. I took another turn on my G harmonica, for the third song in a row.
"Billy" was the most fun. They asked me to do another song, and I said OK, I had one, an "old west number" but it really needed percussion. A guy called Eddie G was summoned to the stage. While he tracked down his box (actually a flamenco percussion instrument called a cajon), I started the long instrumental lead in to the song. Eddie was like, "is this it?" thinking I might just be warming up, but I just nodded and he started playing. The percussion really added a lot, and we nestled right into a groove that could have just gone on and on. Things were cool until I started to sing the first verse "There's guns across the river aimin atcha," and then the crowd really came alive as they recognized the song, much to my surprise, cheering, and Mike Munoz (the "house" musician) grabbed his guitar and joined us to do the acoustic lead. The song lasted at least five or six minutes, probably longer, as I stretched to remember all the different verses from three different recordings on the Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid soundtrack. But rather than get stale, "Billy" continued to steadily build in excitement right up to the end. It wasn't perfect, as I dropped the beat once, and also stepped on Mike's guitar solo by breaking in to early for the "Guitars will play your grand finale" verse, but these faults were hardly noticeable. (I realized afterward I had the words wrong, it is supposed to be "gypsy queens," not "guitars.") We got such a response that I knew I had to leave the stage, 'cause I couldn't follow it.
The owner of the place sent me out a coffee, high praise indeed for this venue. I overheard him say, "I know what soundtrack I am going to listen to tonight!" Cool, I must have struck a nerve with that one.
Later on, a guy named Richard closed his set with Donovan's "Catch the Wind." Galvanized, I went on for a second time and did "Sand and Foam," which I pulled off very convincingly, but with less response than I would have hoped for. Then somebody asked if I knew a song called "Geraldine." This was a request that I never thought I'd get, and I didn't waste it. I had to fish for my capo, but then I launched straight into it. It must have seemed like I knew every obscure folk song from the sixties. However, my version of "The Ballad of Geraldine" was not totally pure, veering slightly into "Boots of Spanish Leather" as my fingers took on a will of their own. Not bad though. Afterwards I talked to the guy who requested it; his name turned out to be Neil; he is a young blues harmonica player. He had never been able to find anyone who could play that song until then.
This was a really fun show, and I was very glad I did it, especially because I almost flaked at several points leading up to it. Matt took me to task afterward for not inviting him, but in reality, I wasn't sure I would actually play, even while I was sitting there five minutes beforehand. I made sure to invite Matt to the next one.
Old Torrance Coffee & Tea
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Songs performed:
- It Hurts Me Too
- Big Tin Truck
- The Dark End of the Street
- Billy (with Mike Munoz on lead acoustic and backing vocal, and Eddie G on percussion)
- Sand and Foam
- The Ballad of Geraldine
I launched straight into "It Hurts Me Too" with no introduction. I explained it as an Elmore James song. Did it in C, with a G harmonica, played cross-harp. I was very happy with this one, having learned it a few days earlier and practiced quite a bit. I did the whole show "unplugged," that is with only a single microphone for amplification. I had a bad experience with my guitar plugged in the previous time, and didn't want to risk it.
"Big Tin Truck" was my own song, but played like the Black and Blue High Desert Mystery arrangement. Well, without the band. What I mean is that I sang the Munson words in the bridge. I dedicated this song to Wayne Davis, the resident truck driver and country singer, but he wasn't there to hear it. He had the flu or something.
"The Dark End of the Street" I introduced as a Motown song turned country, which I had just learned this week. However I was called out on it, because it was in actuality a stealth Gram Parsons cover, a fact I readily confirmed. For some reason, my voice is well suited to this one. I took another turn on my G harmonica, for the third song in a row.
 |
| Mike M. and Eddie G, backing band for "Billy." |
The owner of the place sent me out a coffee, high praise indeed for this venue. I overheard him say, "I know what soundtrack I am going to listen to tonight!" Cool, I must have struck a nerve with that one.
Later on, a guy named Richard closed his set with Donovan's "Catch the Wind." Galvanized, I went on for a second time and did "Sand and Foam," which I pulled off very convincingly, but with less response than I would have hoped for. Then somebody asked if I knew a song called "Geraldine." This was a request that I never thought I'd get, and I didn't waste it. I had to fish for my capo, but then I launched straight into it. It must have seemed like I knew every obscure folk song from the sixties. However, my version of "The Ballad of Geraldine" was not totally pure, veering slightly into "Boots of Spanish Leather" as my fingers took on a will of their own. Not bad though. Afterwards I talked to the guy who requested it; his name turned out to be Neil; he is a young blues harmonica player. He had never been able to find anyone who could play that song until then.
This was a really fun show, and I was very glad I did it, especially because I almost flaked at several points leading up to it. Matt took me to task afterward for not inviting him, but in reality, I wasn't sure I would actually play, even while I was sitting there five minutes beforehand. I made sure to invite Matt to the next one.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Swamptooth Live!
After years of dorking around, the mysterious musical entity called "Swamptooth" finally took the stage on 9/28/2011 at Old Torrance Coffee &
Tea, to perform a handful of acoustic songs, open-mic style. On this occasion - its public debut -
the "band" was reduced to just the absolute core lineup: me, and my guitar!
It was a warm autumn night, and the crowd was maybe 15-20 local
characters, split evenly between youngsters and fogies. Everyone was
laid back, attentive, and friendly, so the music got a good reception.
Songs performed:
This was my first public musical performance in several years. So, yeah, I was a bit nervous beforehand. But having done it, I don't know why I waited so long. It was quite fun to do, and turned out pretty good!
I think Matt would dig it here; OTC&T would be a perfect whistle stop for Black & Blue, and is totally in spec for a Swamptooth extended testing ground. So I would DEFINITELY like to play here again.
 |
| Standing in for "Swamptooth" in this photo is a blues guitar player named Jesse, who borrowed my Martin for a few songs of his own, 'cause his own guitar was pretty awful. |
Songs performed:
- Moonshine Blues
- Blackbird
- Miller's Cave
- Hurricane Days
- Sing Me Back Home
- Blackbird (encore/request)
This was my first public musical performance in several years. So, yeah, I was a bit nervous beforehand. But having done it, I don't know why I waited so long. It was quite fun to do, and turned out pretty good!
I think Matt would dig it here; OTC&T would be a perfect whistle stop for Black & Blue, and is totally in spec for a Swamptooth extended testing ground. So I would DEFINITELY like to play here again.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
www.classicstickmen.com - classic stickmen dot gone.
Looks like another domain name has gone the way of the dodo. Oh well.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Another Round
All of the mixes I've done over the past couple of days came with me to the gym tonight. I have a few more notes that I took that I need to implement, but overall, I think things are really coming together. I think for my next test, I'll put together a playlist that shuffles between BNB songs and songs from legit albums. Mainly just to check overall volume. I want to see how close to the mark we are.
There's a couple more tiny technical nits to clean up, but it's getting cleaner and cleaner. Very exciting times.
There's a couple more tiny technical nits to clean up, but it's getting cleaner and cleaner. Very exciting times.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Starting Another Mix Down Cycle
Today, I finished making the changes to the mixes that I wanted to make after the first listening. I then took them to the pool in my iPhone and ran through them all. Two had export errors, so that wasn't much help.
As for the other songs, it's really just an iterative process. The things I fixed now sound really good, but new things have been revealed that I want to fix. Overall, the volume needs to come down on most of the songs. Easy fix. There's a couple songs that have some vocal stuff that needs tightening up, and my biggest pain are the drum fills that are a little sloppy.
But overall, good progress so far. I've taken tons of notes, loaded them into the spreadsheet, and I will begin work on them soon. I'm thinking I might take a break for the rest of the day, and come at it with fresh ears tomorrow.
As for the other songs, it's really just an iterative process. The things I fixed now sound really good, but new things have been revealed that I want to fix. Overall, the volume needs to come down on most of the songs. Easy fix. There's a couple songs that have some vocal stuff that needs tightening up, and my biggest pain are the drum fills that are a little sloppy.
But overall, good progress so far. I've taken tons of notes, loaded them into the spreadsheet, and I will begin work on them soon. I'm thinking I might take a break for the rest of the day, and come at it with fresh ears tomorrow.
Come My Way Change Log
Knowing what a detail hound Bill Fischer is, I thought he would get a kick out of the meticulous change log notes I took today while tweaking Come My Way. I fully realize that at this point, I'm delving into the realm of absurdity with all of the minor tweaks I am doing, but I figure since I have the opportunity, I may as well make it as good as it can be. Which of course, is THE trap we fall into that ends up making our albums take four years to produce. Sigh. The good news is, all of this work only took about an hour, and I did it on my lunch break from work, so it's not a big deal. In my mind, the song sounds 100% better with all of the bass notes ironed out and playing more smoothly. I also fixed a drum fill glitch which had always bugged me. It's probably one of those things where 99% of the listening audience would never even notice, but oh well.
Come my Way - grafted drumfill at 1:32:210 from 1:38:930, correcting a minor timing glitch
Come My Way - 1:33:514 - did some moving of two bass hits that were slightly out of timing with the drum fill
1:45:579 - grafted in a bass hit and time stretched it. Initially, this was a bad note in the performance. Actualy, it was the right note, just barely played. I found the same note, plugged it in, and time stretched it to the proper duration.
1:56:100 - time compression on one bass note. Start of note hit now lines up with drum strike. Duration shrunk so as not to cause ripple effect
2:08:206 - moved bass hit to the right a tiny smidge to line up with drum hit
2:08:939 - moved bass hit to the right for timing fix
2:10:234 - used time stretch to move beginning of bass hit to align with drum strike. Time stretch used because the note was held a long time, and moving it would have made it collide with next bass note
2:21:145 - Bass hit moved to align with drum strike
2:20:255 - bass hit moved to the right for timing
2:24:771 - Time stretch done on bass hit to compress it in order to line it up with a drum strike
2:54:484 - grafted on a bass strike to cover up what was a flubbed note. Same error made in original recording at 1:45:578. Even grafted in the same bass note as before.
3:04:294 moved bass hit to the left slightly to fix timing error
3:22:051 - TINY move of bass hit to fix timing.
3:07:301 - move of bass hit for timing
4:12:357 - grafted in first two bass notes from another part of the song (2:35:396) to fix timing issues.
4:13:940 - time stretch done to bass hit to make it align with drum strike
4:19:221 - reposition of bass part (two notes) move to the left a tad to align with first drum hit. Time stretch applied to make both hits line up with two drum strikes.
4:26:975 - time compression applied to single bass note for timing purposes
4:31:372 - Time stretch applied to note to make the beginning of it line up with drum srike
Saved new file as Come_My_Way May 6 2011
0:14:490 - time compression on first bass note to align with drum strike
Deleted silence/line hiss at the beginning of the song prior to first bass hit. (on bass track only)
0:24:256 - time stretch on bass line. VERY tiny one, to bring it into sync
00:25:328 - moved bass hits over to align with drum strikes. To the right.
0:39:787 - bad bass line. Took a a few bars from :21:712 and grafted them in at target location
Copied a bass fill from 0:57:861, and grafted it over a sloppy bass fill at
Copied bass fill from 1:12:275 and pasted over 1:15:869
Project saved, and output Wav file for review.
Come my Way - grafted drumfill at 1:32:210 from 1:38:930, correcting a minor timing glitch
Come My Way - 1:33:514 - did some moving of two bass hits that were slightly out of timing with the drum fill
1:45:579 - grafted in a bass hit and time stretched it. Initially, this was a bad note in the performance. Actualy, it was the right note, just barely played. I found the same note, plugged it in, and time stretched it to the proper duration.
1:56:100 - time compression on one bass note. Start of note hit now lines up with drum strike. Duration shrunk so as not to cause ripple effect
2:08:206 - moved bass hit to the right a tiny smidge to line up with drum hit
2:08:939 - moved bass hit to the right for timing fix
2:10:234 - used time stretch to move beginning of bass hit to align with drum strike. Time stretch used because the note was held a long time, and moving it would have made it collide with next bass note
2:21:145 - Bass hit moved to align with drum strike
2:20:255 - bass hit moved to the right for timing
2:24:771 - Time stretch done on bass hit to compress it in order to line it up with a drum strike
2:54:484 - grafted on a bass strike to cover up what was a flubbed note. Same error made in original recording at 1:45:578. Even grafted in the same bass note as before.
3:04:294 moved bass hit to the left slightly to fix timing error
3:22:051 - TINY move of bass hit to fix timing.
3:07:301 - move of bass hit for timing
4:12:357 - grafted in first two bass notes from another part of the song (2:35:396) to fix timing issues.
4:13:940 - time stretch done to bass hit to make it align with drum strike
4:19:221 - reposition of bass part (two notes) move to the left a tad to align with first drum hit. Time stretch applied to make both hits line up with two drum strikes.
4:26:975 - time compression applied to single bass note for timing purposes
4:31:372 - Time stretch applied to note to make the beginning of it line up with drum srike
Saved new file as Come_My_Way May 6 2011
0:14:490 - time compression on first bass note to align with drum strike
Deleted silence/line hiss at the beginning of the song prior to first bass hit. (on bass track only)
0:24:256 - time stretch on bass line. VERY tiny one, to bring it into sync
00:25:328 - moved bass hits over to align with drum strikes. To the right.
0:39:787 - bad bass line. Took a a few bars from :21:712 and grafted them in at target location
Copied a bass fill from 0:57:861, and grafted it over a sloppy bass fill at
Copied bass fill from 1:12:275 and pasted over 1:15:869
Project saved, and output Wav file for review.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Song Work For Today
I have knocked a few songs off the ToDo list this afternoon. I made some changes to April, Armageddon, and Big Tin Truck. Basically, whatever it was that I noticed in my recent listening, I fixed. I'll post a laundry list of the exact changes made later. But yeah, work continues.
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