Current Knowledge: I've covered two Dead songs in my life. Shakedown Street with an old band, and Friend of the Devil. I was under the impression that The Grateful Dead was a band for hippies and crazy stoners before I heard Friend of the Devil, which is twangy and literally the opposite of Shakedown Street. This has left me very confused about the identity of this band, but two songs isn't an ideal sample size. So I figured I'd add a third.
First Thoughts: This is way more like Friend of the Devil than Shakedown Street. If I didn't know better I'd have guessed that The Eagles wrote this or something, save for the weird little key shift in the middle of the verse. That's not to say I don't like it. I actually do, but I'm pretty surprised that this is the sound of one of their greatest hits. And it's super long, but from what I remember that's a thing with this band. They did include the word cocaine in the hook, so maybe there's something to be said for that.
Verdict: What did I just listen to? Because I'm not really sure it was a Grateful Dead song. Knowing Friend of the Devil has kind of prepared me for something out of the range of what I expected, but that's pretty darn far from it. I guess I categorized them closer to Pink Floyd than The Eagles. Wikipedia to the rescue: "The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock." I am floored by this. They have so many styles that it's like they don't have a style at all. The verdict here is that I don't know anything about The Grateful Dead, I guess. On the matter of the aforementioned tune, though: it's good. I think I like Friend of the Devil better, but that's almost certainly my folk preference shining through here.
Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin was like the second song on my list. Since listening to it, I have very much taken a liking to it. So much so that I've added it to my regular set list (Since it's a cappella, all I had to do was learn the words!)
A couple weeks ago I played an open mic downtown at a bar called Buffalo Iron Works. It's one of my favorite venues downtown and the open mic is relatively new; I was ecstatic about it's debut, to be honest. Attendance was lacking though, simply because the word hasn't gotten out yet about it. The host, who I'm good friends with, told me I could play as long as I wanted (probably because he knew he was getting out of playing himself). People always get on my case about playing for free and how it's hurting me in the long run, but I love it too much to ever turn down an opportunity. Mercedes Benz was like the fourth song I did.
Now, performing is kind of like a drug. It's not for everyone, but the few that get hooked on it are insatiable. I am one of the (lucky?) few. The catch to this is that you can feel pretty vulnerable up on a stage with a room full of people staring at you, critiquing you whether you like it or not. To play with a guitar is one thing; the guitar can be altered to cover a missing word, and vocals can fill in for a forgotten guitar line - I've done both. It provides a sense of security in a lot of ways. But to take away the guitar altogether is a very different experience. You're totally exposed. If you make a mistake, there is absolutely no hiding it. It's you, your voice, and a room full of potential critics - like American Idol auditions, except these people lose nothing by being totally honest in their thoughts. The point I'm trying to make is that singing totally a cappella in an environment like a bar is a risky and intimidating thing to do, and is something I would usually avoid.
But alas, someone requested I do some Joplin, and I figured now was the time to test this out.
There were maybe twelve people in the bar but they managed to give me a standing ovation anyways. I must've done an okay job. :) Honestly it was my best received song of the night, which was pretty surprising to me. Plus one for doing my homework and actually looking up this song, finally.
In conclusion - Mercedes Benz has earned a permanent spot on the set list, and I've played it at every gig since. Sometimes it pays to be a little risky, I guess.
I love Halloween, I won't lie. So I decided it was only fitting to do a Friday Feature based on an appropriate tune, despite not ever mentioning it on the blog (I already love this song),
Don't Fear the Reaper, as covered by Joshua Path!
I love this tune. I always have. And I was totally shocked to turn to the internet and be disappointed over and over with the covers people have uploaded. Nobody could sing it, nobody could play it. I was about to change songs when I stumbled upon this gem.
Meet Joshua Path.
I don't have enough nice things to say about the way this has been executed. Where the original song is edgy and uptempo, this cover is haunting and light. It's sung flawlessly, and has an incredibly high level of production, which is nothing but beneficial here. Taking out the percussion and slowing it down really smooths out the sound in a way that gives it a ton of dimension and room to appreciate the lyrics. And the harmonies are phenomenal, really, especially the ones written in for the "I'm your man" line. I think that's what made it for me. It's an incredible rendition. Words really don't do it justice; please please please take the time to listen to this. I promise you won't be disappointed.
More on Joshua Path: He's a guitarist/vocalist based out of LA. His sound has been described as “Early Beatles, couched in a sound similar to the Goo Goo Dolls, along with intelligent and creative storytelling not unlike Bob Dylan” by Music Connection Magazine, which I can agree with and then some. He has an impressive bio full of accolades and a sixth CD out, titled, Between Heaven and Jonestown. If you'd like to hear more from him (I certainly do), his website is here: http://www.joshuapath.com/. Thank you, Mr. Path, for doing justice to a phenomenal song that I was certain no one could do.
This is a music review blog. It's not supposed to be for pop music, but I have to make an exception here and talk about T-Swift.
She released 1989 just the other day, and, so far, I have been able to avoid it. If I may be candid, back in the day I was quite the Taylor Swift fan, when she was still a country singer. But I have watched her abandon her talented singer/songwriter roots and devolve into a less-than-appealing cookie cutter pop artist, releasing only songs that I can't stand. But, alas, I figured I'd give her one more chance.
The song I've seen most quoted on the internet so far is Out of the Woods. The title sounds thought out, and like it might have some substance. So I sat down and listened to it with a full open and non-judgmental mind.
It was so bad. :(
The chorus is just clusters of words repeated over and over in monotone, with a lot of synth and drums to make it dance-able. The verses are lacking in substance and all traces of the Taylor Swift that first graced the music scene are completely gone. It sounded so fake and over produced and, not that I was expecting a miracle, I was pretty let down.
And that's what's bugging me. I spend so much time writing myself, and I know how much effort it takes to write a song that's good, verses any song on 1989. (I listened to nearly all the rest in hopes I might find a diamond in the rough. I did not.) All of the good music is being pushed off the radio in favor of this grossly mass-produced pop garbage that is only appealing to teenage girls. And this is a very common complaint about music these days. But good music is still being made! I hear it all the time in some of my favorite artists and on Pandora. If the demand is high and the content is there, why isn't the good stuff on the radio? Why do record labels think they can push this stuff onto the world without retaliation? Because they already are, and they have been doing it for years.
As an indie artist, this is sad, and disheartening. But the upside? Record labels are losing their power thanks to the rise of the internet. An artists can do everything on their own now, with enough work. So, there will never be a lack of bad pop music on the radio, because record labels can still sell it, for now. But their is a back door to this horrendous onslaught of crap, thanks to the advances of music technology. Thanks to YouTube and Spotify and Bandcamp and SoundCloud and Reverbnation and every other site that is used by independent musicians, good music is still out there and available to the world, no matter what is playing on the radio.
And I think (or fervently hope) that in time, record labels will embrace this shift, and bring back the kind of musicians that deserve to be in the spotlight, rather than just industrializing the one thing that isn't supposed to be made generic.
Music isn't for selling, it's an art form, damn it.
Current Knowledge: I think I have heard Fleetwood Mac before. On my Pandora station. But I'm not totally sure, and this song title doesn't sound familiar. Then the other day, a friend of mine was talking about her newfound Fleetwood Mac obsession, so I decided to put it on the list.
First Thoughts: This is cool. It's haunting and twangy in a really cool way. It actually reminds me a little of Helplessly Hoping, which I adore. Maybe I just have a thing for harmonies, because that seems to be a trend with the songs I'm favoring. It starts off pretty withdrawn but it builds up really nicely into a pretty powerful rock ballad. And the bass solo in the middle is a nice divide and break into the instrumental. This honestly sounds like a song I would play with the windows down driving really fast if I wanted to feel like a badass.
Verdict: I really like this. It's carefully straddling the line between twangy country and rock, but it isn't county rock, ya know? I don't know how else to describe it. It's got all the grit you could want and it builds really nicely, but I would love to see it done with just acoustic guitar and vocals, too. I think that would be interesting. Overall, though, this is a cool tune.
In looking at all this classic rock and surrounding myself with people who value this sort of music, it's no surprise that the technical aspects of musical instruments comes up pretty often. This is something I know even less about when compared to "good music". So, here's something that's a bit off the usual beaten path.
Story time. Over the summer I was gifted a guitar.
This is Precious. She was a gift from a very generous friend, and I love her dearly. As I have recently joined a band, having a real nice electric guitar has been absolutely necessary. This particular guitar is a 2006 Elliot Easton model (The guy from The Cars) Gretsch, a solid body in the color of Cadillac green, with a Bigsby tailpiece (that's the whammy bar!) and Gretsch Humbucker pickups. When musician friends of mine see said guitar, the pickups are very often the first thing that get brought up. I know Humbucker = good. But why? What's the difference between them and any other kind of pickups? Don't they all do the same thing?
I did some research, and I'm gonna attempt to break this down in a way that makes sense to someone who has no idea what I'm talking about. Nobody ever explains this stuff to me without making me feel dumb or by using terminology I've never heard. So I'm gonna lay this out in total layman's terms, so that maybe someone else of the less-formally-educated-but-still-musical group can understand what the heck is going on with pickups and why people play favorites.
~
First things first: pickups. Sticking strictly with electric guitar (Acoustic is a whole other ball game), the pickups are what sit under the guitar strings and pick up their vibrations and turn them into sound. In the picture above, they're the two rectangular gold boxes with little black lines and gold dots in em. In a few words, there's a coil in there, and a magnet, which interacts with the strings on the guitar by vibrating and creates a voltage in the coil, which is translated into sound. (I still don't totally understand how this works. All that's important is pickup = sound interpreter.) The main difference between pickups is the sound they create, not surprisingly. And there are several different types.
Single Coil
My first electric guitar (a black Fender Squire that was also a gift and came from one of those $100 guitar/amp box sets, and looks a lot like the picture below) had single coil pickups. They look like this.
This was essentially the first type of pickup created, and is as it sounds; a single coil with two horseshoe shaped magnets in it under the plastic case. Characteristically, these pickups create a sound that is twangy, bright, and cutting. However, different variations on the single coil pickup have been created for different guitars. A Stratocaster guitar (the black guitar above is a Stratocaster) is the brightest and twangiest sounding, while a telecaster (below) style pickup is a bit rounder and warmer sounding, but punchier.
There are variations of these for other brands and guitars, but they all tend to fall somewhere between these two styles. The drawback to single coil is that they tend to make a bit of a buzzing sound; think of the hum you often hear when a guitar is plugged into an amp but not being played. Modern technology, however has helped to create "noiseless" versions of them. These pickups are most popular on Fender brand guitars.
P90
A P90 pickup is very similar to a single coil. They often look like this:
From the outside, they're wider and are thicker than a single coil pickup, though it is just a single coil inside. This coil, however, is much wider. It allows the pickup to "hear" more, resulting in a bigger sound that isn't as bright or twangy. It can also produce a higher output, which means it can get louder, and boosts the mid-range tones of the guitar. This gives them a lot of versatility. They come in a couple different designs and colors, but they work just the same as a single coil. (A note: I don't see these used nearly as much as single coil or Humbuckers.)
Humbuckers
These bad boys look like the ones on Precious. But they can also look like this:
The difference here is that each pickup contains two coils instead of one. The two opposing coils are designed to "buck", or cancel, the pesky aforementioned "hum", hence the name. Aside from doing that, adding a second coil increases the output of the guitar, so it can get even louder, and really cuts back on some of the higher frequencies. Guitars with these pickups sound warm and powerful, which is exactly how one would like their guitar to sound on many occasions. The name humbucker has become the blanket term for all guitar pickups with two coils, though it is possible to have a double coil pickup with no humbucking action.
Which brings me to my next point. There are still a TON of other things that can effect the sound of the guitar. How many times the coil was wound, the type of magnet used, the placement of the pickup on the guitar, what company made the pickups and for which guitar they were made, the way the guitar was built, the kind of strings, whether the pickup covers are on or off, the brand of guitar, the amplifier, etc, etc. There are even distinctions between active and passive pickups, an active pickup having a battery powered circuit to create a "hotter" or louder sound, though most pickups are passive. People often create their own custom setups involving all of these parts. And it all comes down to what sounds good to a particular person. There are generic universal ideas about what sounds good, and then there are the needs of the individual musicians playing their guitars. Sometimes a guitarist is going to want a bright tone with a lot of treble. Sometimes a guitarist wants to be as loud and as powerful as possible. Most of the time, the guitarist wants to sound how they think is best, and that's usually somewhere in between all of these things. It's all about preference.
Hopefully I've shed some light on the subject at hand (I learned a ridiculous amount; the internet is a beautiful thing). I know it's a bit off topic from what I usually post, but I think it really adds to the knowledge base I'm acquiring here (hint: that means there will be more stuff like this, cause I liked doing it a lot).
I'll leave you with this, an awesome example of most of what I've just explained. Even a totally untrained ear can hear the differences, and it's not hard to see that both humbuckers and single coils have their place in the guitar world.
Current Knowledge: I don't know anything about Neil Young. In looking up which song I should listen to, in less than 15 seconds I inadvertently discovered that I know at least three other songs of his, and that he was the "Young" in Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Some days I feel like I'm making musical progress, and then there are days like today, where I feel as ignorant as I did on day one. Ugh. This song is one I am not familiar with, and I was such a big fan of Helplessly Hoping that this song is nonetheless being held to high expectations. First Thoughts: Oh god, the harmonica. I have a secret love affair with harmonicas, so already this song has like three extra points starting out. But I don't really care for his voice... what? I'm surprised with myself. I didn't think that going to be my beef with this. The lyrics are really poetic, though, and the harmonica has won me over. It's sad and soulful and suddenly I have the urge to cover this very badly.
Verdict: I'm still reeling over the fact that I wasn't totally wowed by his voice. But I guess that holds true with tons of artists from that day and age; it was more about the songs back then, I think. (ie, my entire sentiment towards All Along the Watchtower). Pushing those thoughts aside - the song itself is great. This is exactly like something I would cover (I actually got compared to Neil Young once and had no idea how to respond. Now I understand) so that will very likely be in the works. But hey, here's to learning some stuff today.
This Friday Feature goes to Chebacco, with their cover of Helplessly Hoping!
It's no secret that I absolutely love this song, which means finding a cover that would do it justice would prove very difficult. There are tons of people who can do the harmony exactly as its written, so that's not what I was looking for. I wanted to see someone capture the feeling of the song really well.
Meet Chebacco :)
If I were to see this song performed live by the original artist, this is how I'd want to see it; sitting around a kitchen table, void of any extra effects or staging of any kind. It's simple, it's soulful, and these guys have done it right, in my opinion. Not to mention their harmonies blend beautifully. All three of these individuals can sing, clearly, the guitar playing is spot on, and they all look like they mean what they're singing. The simplicity of it is what really got me; there's nothing to it, which is exactly why it works so well. Thank you for perfectly capturing how I envisioned this song performed!
Very regrettably, I could find almost no other information on this trio of talented musicians, other than that their names are Andrew James, Alex Gallant, and Derek Rice. If I hear from them, I will certainly let you know where you can find out more. I myself am very curious and hope there is much more than this, because it's wonderful.
Bob Dylan: All Along the Watchtower (for whatever reason, this person has left us a picture-less video for this track, but this is the best recording, I promise.)
Current Knowledge: I cover Don't Think Twice It's Alright almost every time I play a gig, but embarrassingly enough that's pretty much the only Dylan song I know. However this particular song is covered by my musician friends very, very often. So I've heard it, and I know how it goes, but I've never heard the original version, and I'm extremely curious.
First Thoughts: Oh, how this riff reminds me of Wednesday nights and bad decisions. Regret and nostalgia all rolled into one. I've heard enough of Dylan to know that I would not be a fan of how he sang this, but part of me thinks I have heard drunk guys at various bars do it better, which is kind of messing with me. That sentiment is wrong on a lot of levels, but that's how it goes with Dylan songs. The lyrics are what's important. I would, however, like to see this guy try and audition for any vocal based show from this century, cause he'd be laughed right out of the audition line.
Verdict: Folky-er and lighter and less in tune vocally than what I've heard so many times before. I'm very curious into what the Hendrix version is like, now, because I think that might be closer to what I'm used to hearing. I think I'll have to review that one separately though, as it's practically a totally different song.
Current Knowledge: Like a million and a half people have asked me about this song in one way or another. I'm not a big fan of having one of the most common female names of the 21st century, so I never looked this one up mostly out of spite. Not a fan of my name, not gonna bother with the song; this was the mindset. Nauseatingly petty, I know. Begrudgingly, I am about to change this.
First Thoughts: Agh. It starts out so awesome. It sounds hard as heck to play, honestly. The melody riff is so catchy, and the song overall falls somewhere between folk and... Caribbean sounding, maybe? It goes back and forth between so many parts, it's hard to discern what style the Allman Brothers are supposed to be based off this song alone. (Wikipedia says they're American Rock.. whatever that means.) Is this a jam band? Because this is definitely a jam band song. Everybody gets a solo for three minutes! And at the halfway point I've decided there are definitely no words to this song. Which I don't mind, I can certainly appreciate a good instrumental. I can't argue that it's not great as a musician. As a listener, though, by minute five I'm definitely a bit bored. Someone, somewhere, loves every second of this 7 minute song, I'm sure.
Verdict: It's a really technically difficult jam song, basically. Jam bands aren't really my thing, but as far as lyric-less songs go, it's solid. I am nowhere near good enough at the guitar to attempt this, so there's a lot to be said about the skill it would take to cover this one, for sure.
One last thing.. why in the world is this called Jessica? Because it drags on and is almost boring after five minutes? (That's only my worst fear as a human being) Or because it is a technical masterpiece and requires a cultured palate to appreciate it?
We're gonna go with the latter. ;)
