My Kickstarter Campaign Has Been Launched
I’m extremely excited to announce that I’ve officially launched my first Kickstarter campaign!
Tagged: mp3
I’m Kickstarting a CD
Those of you who know me, know that I have four albums worth of material that I choose from when playing live. That’s something around 50 songs. The big question after a gig is always, “Where can I buy your music?” The answer is complicated.
I Call Them Albums
Here’s my latest definition of feeling old: Speaking to someone under a certain age about music, referring to a collection of published songs as an “album” and then subsequently being looked at as if I had suddenly lapsed into Greek. “What’s an album?” they usually ask.
It happens a lot more often than I’d like. I was talking to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law not long ago. They’re not young enough when records were never part of their lives but they’re apparently not old enough so that using the word “album” or “record” is a hard habit to break. My sister-in-law actually laughed out loud and said, “Who calls them albums any more, Lou?” Well, a lot of people I know do, but I guess it all depends on who you hang around with. It was such a weird moment that it stuck with me. The fact that she found it so funny also stuck with me. Was this something I should change? Should I not be using those words anymore? It got me thinking.
I’m one of those children of the 70’s who remembers and owned many of what are called LP’s. The LP stands for Long-playing. These typically vinyl discs were placed on a turntable, spun around, and read by a stylus – or what we commonly referred to as the “needle” which resided at the end of a long arm. This needle delivered the sound to your speakers. Wild.
Cassette tapes came along at some point (as did the relatively short-lived and not discussed here 8-track cartridge) and while it was cool that they were more portable and you could record on them, they were never quite able to knock LPs out of the market. People usually referred to them as “tapes” but it was still acceptable to call them albums at a higher level. They lived side-by-side in harmony for quite some time.
I worked in record stores (<— there’s that word again!) for a long, long time and I don’t recall a time when someone said, “Do you have that new tape by Some Artist?” Usually they’d ask for the new album and we might say, “Do you want it on record or tape?” and that was that. I’m sure there were some people who used the term on a regular basis but they were not the majority then. I’m also pretty sure that saying the word “record” was as taboo as I’m led to believe it is today. In retrospect, I think it’s because the LP format was not totally wiped out yet, which leads me to my next example: The CD or “compact disc”.
I remember when this wonderful monster came along. I was working at a store called “Crazy Eddie’s” (His prices are inSANE!!!) here in Northern New Jersey. I was there for the whole CD revolution. I watched the format hatch and grow commercially. I unpacked the first shipments and put them out into retrofitted bins. At first they came in what were called “longboxes” which contained most of the cover art. Some labels got creative while other cheaper labels simply packaged the CDs in long, clear plastic “blisters” with the booklet up top and the CD with tray at the bottom. They sat in the bins just the same as the ones with the longboxes so browsing the bins would not be a problem.
I was also there, working in those same stores, when we started emptying the LP racks completely and converting them into CD bins. I distinctly remember noticing that two CDs in their boxes, next to each other, took up the same amount of space as an album. For a long time, CDs sat in the bins two columns deep with nothing dividing them. Why I remember this stuff, I couldn’t tell you but as memories go, they are sort of fond ones.
It was fun for a short while in the interim, positioning CDs, tapes, AND record albums all together in a Top 10 sequence according to a Billboard chart. The tapes were in these long plastic “shucks” that were supposed to prevent theft. People usually just broke them, but they looked nice when you put them on the front wall because they became the same height as the LPs and CD longboxes. Working in those stores in the old days was a lot more fun. Try going into a music store today (if you’re around my age). It’s a whole different experience.
Remember, this was all pre-internet, pre-downloading, pre-mp3s, and all that stuff. We’ve come a long way since then and the CD is still around while cassette tapes have gone away. The LP suffered for a long time and was just about to be counted totally out when some nostalgia for the format began to resurface. For all intents and purposes, however, the LP was pretty much thrown to the curb, at least commercially.
I was originally talking about naming conventions but as you may have noticed, this little side-trip down Memory Lane actually serves a purpose. It gives you a little insight as to why someone like me might still say, “Did you hear that new Lenny Kravitz record?” which my sister-in-law seems to find so funny-bone tickling funny. I guess it just comes down to plain old conditioning and/or force of habit. When you grow up saying or doing a certain thing, then that said thing sticks with you.
I have thought about this a lot more than I care to admit and I’ve always come to the same conclusion. I just can’t bring myself to change the way I refer to popular compiled published recordings. Over the years, I’ve made many other changes in the way I speak based on changing times, but for some reason I can’t let go of using the terms “records” or “albums”. It’s just so hard-wired in my brain that I can’t undo it. It just doesn’t sound right to me.
I think younger folks are used to it and accept it more because they weren’t around when albums were in full force. All they’ve ever seen are CDs so it’s natural to them. I suppose the relevant comparison for me would be television. I was born in 1970. TVs were around for years but in 1970, there were plenty of people around who remembered when TVs became commonplace after World War II (even though television had been around years before that). The 1950’s saw the TV boom; the 1980’s saw the CD boom. I personally don’t ever remember a time when radio was king, when phone numbers didn’t fully consist of actual numbers, or milk was delivered to your house in the morning by a “milkman”. Well, that milkman part might be a stretch. I remember being 5 or so and having an insulated metal box on the front porch that actually said “milk” on it. I never saw milk IN it, nor do I remember ever spotting a “milkman” but I think you get the idea.
I think the term is making a slight comeback though. They have these “Record Store Days” now where people are supposed to go to record stores and get all nostalgic and stuff. I’ll be honest and say I don’t really have any interest in that. I practically lived in record stores for years and had some fun times but all in all, it’s just another business. The idea is to make money. It was the PEOPLE that made the record stores fun – not the job. No money = no rent = no more store.
I’ve seen music on iTunes referred to as “iTunes Albums”. Some labels are still referred to as “Record Labels” which is nice. (I am lumping the terms “records” and “albums” together, please note.) To be honest, I hear lots of people saying, “Did you get that new CD by [insert pop name]?” and I’m not even sure that really works anymore with all the digital hoopla. Are they going to start saying, “Did you get that new download yet?”
Maybe I’m not as out-dated as I fear I might be.
Times change and society adapts for the most part. In this case, however, I’m relatively sure I’ll go to my grave calling these musical collections “albums” regardless of the format they reside on.
I’m secretly longing for the labeling convention of “CD” to go away (or at least have the same stigma as “album/record”) so that when I talk to my sister-in-law and she says she mentions the new CD from some artist, I can laugh and say, “HA! Who calls them CDs anymore? Gosh!”
Two New Songs & Workin’ Progress
Today, I’m proud to release two new songs. They’re called “There You Are” and “Something New”.
They’re going to be part of the next record which will be called Workin’ Progress. I decided on that name because I’m going to be creating the album as time goes by and releasing tracks as they’re finished, instead of waiting and releasing a big bunch of songs all at once. Hence, the album will be a work in progress until it’s finished.
I have some more songs written and ready to be recorded so hopefully it won’t be too long until this album is complete. When I feel I have enough songs and the project feels like it’s done, I’ll call it an album and be done with it.
“There You Are” was written with my friend Doug Brehm one night while we were bored and hanging out. He plays the guitar solo on it as well. It’s a nice, mellow acoustic song.
“Something New” started out as an experiment with software instruments. One thing led to another and it became a song. The only real instrument on that one is the guitar, which is sparse.
Both new songs can be heard in the music player here on the site, or on any of my other links (Facebook, etc.) below.
Enjoy and please leave me some comments if you like them. If you don’t like them, keep it to yourself. 🙂
See ya!
Every Song Tells A Story: Corporate Robot
The Story
I enjoy humor in music. There are times to be cerebral and there are times to be just plain funny. I like making people laugh with a goofy lyric or idea. This song was meant to be humorous, of course, but underneath it all lies a thinly veiled satirical commentary on corporate America.
The underlying theme in “Corporate Robot” is of conflict. I’ve been working in corporate America now for a long time but I’m not a fan of the corporate mentality that you find in some places. I’ve worked for many companies; some of them big giants and some smaller. In each, I’ve found a different “company culture” statement (written behind closed doors in some HR department) which in most cases totally contradicts what goes on in the hallways and at the water coolers.
Some companies I’ve worked for were so rigid and quiet that there was hardly any communication at all except via computer or at meetings. In other places, there were definitely cliques of people and if you were not in that group, you lost out. At some jobs you didn’t dare talk to someone who had an office unless they came to speak to you (which was rare). At other jobs, the top dogs were the friendliest people, while the mid-level managers were micromanaging, power hungry ego maniacs who basically did nothing all day, much like Lumbergh from Office Space.
In fact, Mike Judge hit the nail so hard on the head with that film that it’s a wonder that film didn’t change the company culture of corporate America as a whole. Like a wake-up call. But I digress.
I’ve also had some good experiences in corporate America but to be honest, it’s just not a fun place. Depending on where you are, you have to basically sit around for a year or two and just observe people before you know who you can talk to and who you can’t. There are walls everywhere.
There’s also this false sense of what they call “professionalism” which apparently means you can’t be human. Everything has to be sterile and controlled. Mechanized. By the book. Robotic.
So after a few years out there, I realized that I don’t really work with people, for the most part. I work with robots. Corporate Robots. At times, I’d notice that as you went up the ladder, this applied more and more. It seems that folks got phonier the higher they climbed the company ladder. They became more clueless and detached somehow, like celebrities who have lived so long in their little bubbles that they can’t be real people anymore when they go out into crowds. They have an alternate sense of reality and can’t adapt.
Now, I’ll admit that the place I’m at now is not really like this. There are definitely walls and some rigid people but for the most part everyone’s cool, all the way up the ladder. The project I’m working on, actually, is going to try to break down some of those walls. So that makes me excited.
Still, all these years in corporate America (especially jobs I had before this one) have affected me and my thinking. I’ve seen some strange stuff and some really odd behavior from people who were paid very well and claimed to be “professionals”.
So that’s basically what this song is about. It’s about having to pay the bills and being stuck in corporate America doing so. Let’s face it. We all have dream jobs and for a high percentage of us, what we’re currently doing is not what we’d like to be doing. I’d sure like to be able to make music all day long, whether it be scoring films, making records, writing for other people, and so on. That’s just not going to happen for me at this point (without being able to dedicate 100% of my time to it), so here I am doing web design and managing portals. It’s decent work but not as fun as playing guitar. Hence the lyric, “I’m stuck in this world.”
The song is also about the creepy people you sometimes see in the hallways that pretend not to see you, the bosses who can never leave their work at the office and enjoy life, and the feeling like you’re slowly becoming one of these people; part of the machine.
Again, it’s meant to be humorous and I got a little serious while writing this. It’s not that I’m feeling all of this at the moment. I actually just liked the term “Corporate Robot” (I had been using it for years) and the rest of the song just sort of flowed from there. Maybe I was having a bad day at work. Who knows.
I tried to throw in some “corporate speak”, as it’s called. Offices have this strange little bit of vernacular that they like to make use of. Phrases like “low hanging fruit” (the goals easiest to achieve in a shorter time) are heard regularly. Of course, I had to throw a Starbucks reference in there. Corporate America basically keeps that place in business and Starbucks itself is pretty much the IBM of coffee.
The bits about the admins and conference rooms are all based on real events that got stuck in my head. People will walk past you in the office, look you in the eye, and not acknowledge you. It’s like they have to have a reason to say hello. Usually that reason is that they need something from you. I could go on all day.
Sometimes you just have to laugh. Or write a song.
The Recording
“Corporate Robot” was actually a fun song to record. I knew from the start that I did not want cymbals on it, outside of hi-hat. I wanted it to be stiff and robotic but I did not want to use a sample of myself or a loop. The song is more about the conflict and trying not to become a robot than about the existing robots themselves. So I wanted the drum track to be stiff and robotic but still somewhat human. Besides, I’m not really that into drum loops. I’d rather just play a drum track than sit there and edit fills for days.
I recorded the drum track, fighting the urge to hit the crashes on the one or wherever my gut would tell me to. I already had the beat in my head so it was easy to bang it out. I just sang along to myself in my head to keep track of where I was. I had a guide chart on a stand to help me.
I added the bass shortly after, which I also had in my head. I wanted the bass to drive the song because I knew there wasn’t going to be much guitar on it. I wanted a funky guitar chord that I would bang on the two with a little variation here and there. I worked out some chord that sounded right and fired up the tele with a nice clean sound. Before I knew it, the basic tracks were done.
It felt like it needed something else, though. Enter the Rhodes. I had purchased a used 1970’s Fender Rhodes some time in the early 1990’s and had been lugging this thing from home to home for years. If you’ve ever seen one of these beautiful monsters, you know they’re big and heavy. I even had a huge road case with wheels for it. Well, at that point in time I had been trying to sell it and had it set up to take a few pictures. It was almost as if it were saying to me, “Hey, I know you don’t want me any more but why not use me one last time?”
So I plugged the thing directly into my Mac and it sounded beautiful. I had fun coming up with some little parts for the song. The bridge is just straight chords. The little solo piece after that really added some life to the song, but not too much life. I even harmonized it a little for fun. Then there’s a different section for the outro based off some E chord. It all just fell together.
Of course, a few days later the Rhodes and the road case were sold and shipped off to Romania. Wild! I used most of the money to pay off some of the Mac and with the rest I picked up a midi controller so I could add things like pianos, horns and strings to anything I wanted to record. One door closes, another opens.
When it came to vocals, I had two ways I could go. I could have sung it normally or robotic. I opted for the latter but I had this issue where I wasn’t sure if people would get the idea. I knew it would sound very “monotonic” and I had hoped that people would know this was on purpose. I didn’t want people to hear it and think, “Does he really sing that poorly?”
So after a good 30 seconds of deliberation (I don’t like wasting time with decisions like that), I just went and sang it like a robot. I even added a little deep robot backing vocal here and there. Tons of fun, really.
“Where’s the plug? Come on pull it,” came out of my subconscious while I was ad-libbing at the end, but I guess it really does sum things up in a way. Unplug the robot. Be human.
Lyrics
Don’t wanna be no corporate robot
Don’t wanna hear about low hanging fruit
Don’t wanna kiss up to a bitchy admin
So I can get the better conference roomWalk past you in the hallway
Look you right in the eye
You look anywhere but my way
Would it kill you to say HI?Corporate Robot – you’re lifeless and cold
Corporate Robot – you do what you’re told
Corporate Robot – you live by the code
Corporate Robot – it’s old old oldEvery day that I’m here
I feel a piece of me slipping away
Replaced by wires and machinery
Transformation is taking placeWhen you go home to your dependents
Do you know how to be human at all
Do you forget you’re not in the office
Schedule some kid-time to throw around a ballGot a meeting
Got a voice mail
Got a budget to pass
Got a new hire
Got a new tie
Got a stick up my assGot no time
Got no humor
Got no changing moods
Got no patience
Got no guts
Got no idea what I doThe corporate robots line up every day
They get their Starbucks and they pay pay pay
Corporate robots talk in dull corporate speak
Corporate robots think they’re smarter than meThere’s no humanity
There’s no reality
It’s like a B-Movie
It’s killing meI’m stuck in this world
Gotta find me a corporate girl
Where’s the plug?
Come on pull it
He wants to change music!http://newjersey.craigslist.org/muc/1706390997.html
Don’t let him.
HAHAHAH
4 New Songs Released!
I’ve been a busy bee, it seems. Four new songs are now available here on the site and in the other usual places. See the player on the page or the links over on the right.
The four new songs are:
- Will We All Be Friends at the End of the World?
- Crackberry
- The Luckiest Man Alive
- Number Two
Have a listen and leave some feedback if you like.
Enjoy!
Recent Comments