Month: September 2007

The Voice Of Cheese: The Lost Bees

Undaunted, the Voice of Cheese continues… This week’s tune, “Billy-a-Dick”, was sent in by Rick Wood. Rick says:

The song “Billy-a-Dick” was written by Hoagy Carmichael during WWII and arranged for use in the film “For the Boys” with vocals, backup chorus, and full jazz band. Here my friends and I (“The Lost Bees”) attempt to simulate that arrangement with a quartet. Moira Burke, vocal; Heather Hendrickson, vocal, drumsticks on chair, and kazoo; Jason Reed, keyboard; me, acoustic bass. Recorded in my basement direct to 4 track digital last Saturday by Johnny Lee. Our ensemble materializes only on occasional weekends, for fun.

A fun toe tapping adaptation this, if you ask me. Have a listen:

[audio:031_Billy-a-Dick_The_Lost_Bees.mp3]

Like it? Download it!

Album Art Grabber

Need a good quality version of a certain album’s artwork? Been browsing Google’s image search ’til your eyes bled? Album Art Grabber to the rescue. It works by querying Apple’s iTunes database, and returns images up to 1425x1425px and above. Obvious caveat: only artwork for albums which are for sale from within the iTunes store can be downloaded — which means no Frank Zappa.

My Real Age

Though I am about to turn 36, my real age is apparently 34.5, and I am calculated to die at the ripe old age of 75.5. That means I can expect to live approximately another 14400 more days. Woohoo! Plenty of time to complete that novel I’ve been hatching: Online Tests — Who Gives a Flying Fuck Anyway. Should be a bestseller. If I get to finish it in time.

(via cynical-c)

Duke Download

Faces In Reflection, a solo-album by George Duke released in 1974, is available for download here. The album hasn’t been re-issued on CD yet. Duke had this to say about it:

I actually like this record. This was the first LP that really said what I wanted to say. The idea was to play intense music and use the voice as a tool for orchestration. (…) I began experimenting with odd time signatures and various synthesizer textures. This was my first solo record using a synthesizer.

Also available: the album Feel from the same year.
And while we’re at it, have a look at Stravinsky in Rehearsal:

In 1947, William Malloch, possessing a sense of history, recorded Igor Stravinsky rehearsing his new revision of his “Symphonies of Wind Instruments in memory of Debussy”. The sound is antique but the picture of what Stravinsky is striving for musically comes through clearly enough.

The Voice Of Cheese: SOFA (2)

VOC #30 features one of several tracks sent in by SOFA (previously), entitled “Searchin’“. SOFA says:

My problem (as usual) is I can’t decide which I should feature. I’m interested in what you two feel is the best “fit” for the series. Attached to this mail is one of the few original tunes we do and that’s why I included it.

… And a sweet tune it is too! Have a listen:

[audio:030_SOFA_Searchin.mp3]

Like it? Download it!

UMRK Rehearsals ’81

I’m In The Mood For Love. All Night Long. Filthy Habits. We’re Turning Again. Provided these tunes — 1981 style — suit your fancy, you are in for a real treat.

With thanks as always to KUR’s resident bootleg aficionado Gilles, we present UMRK’s August ’81 rehearsals — featuring Lisa Popeil no less.

All week long, grab while hot, you know the drill…

The First Guy To Rap In The 70’s

From the ZPZ blog:

Dude 1 said to Dude 2, “Who’s playing tonight”? “Frank Zappa’s kid,” replied Dude 2. “Who’s that?” said Dude 1. “You never heard of Frank Zappa?” replied Dude 2. Dude 1, “No.” Dude 2, “Dude, he’s like the first guy to rap in the 70’s.” Dude 1, “That’s cool”. Dude 2, “His kid has a tribute band”…

And also a few words about the DVD release.

The Voice Of Cheese: Looptron

VOC #29 comes to us from Neil, aka Looptron. The track is called, quite aptly I might add, My Name Is Looptron. Neil says:

This tune (my first “official” track as an electronic-looping-type-musician) is really a proof-of-concept to see how feasible it was for me to do this stuff live. It took several thousand years of preemptive laptop calibrations and software wrangling, three software simulated tape loop delays, some massively re-processed guitar, a software simulated Rhodes piano, a vocoder, slight velocity and pitch randomisers on the drums and synth bass and approximately five minutes and nine seconds to play it all “live”. All instuments were recorded in the same take, although I did tweak an envelope here or a volume there before presenting it for public consumption…

BTW, you really need “Voice of Processed Cheese” category for this kind of crap. :-)

Upon first listen, Dr Sharl who knows about these things, labeled it Tangerine Dream-esque. I concur! Have a listen:

[audio:029_Looptron_-_Hello_My_Name_Is_Looptron.mp3]

Like it? Download it.