Tomorrow Never Knows

Today I have been steeping in John Lennon and Brian Wilson. I have listened to Tomorrow Never Knows many times in a row now. The wikipedia page on this song talks about the interesting experimental procedures that were developed in the recording of this song, which apparently was never performed live because of the impossibility of repeating the song. Sounds like 2/3 of every Megachild song. Not that ours approach the greatness of the Beatles. Lyrical ifluences came from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is a really out there piece of literature and also the Leary et al. Psychedelic Experience.



The drum riff of "Tomorrow..." seems also to be repeated in the song "End of Music" by Ontario band Do Make Say Think (the riff converges on the Beatles riff a little after 3 minutes into the song).

I have been playing around with some vocal layering on Stair Bears (Bear Shoulders version). I go way off key and things break down in lots of places, but I think there are some interesting bits in it here and there. Working on my vibrato, but it would be awesome to hook up to a Leslie Cabinet like Lennon did. Plastic Soul, man, plastic soul.

I also recorded some things on my cellphone when I was attempting to fish. Then I chopped up some bits and rearranged and amplified and filtered some of it and added some vocal drone track. The song is called Moan You Snake Oil Salesman, a play off of a Blind Lemon Jefferson's song, "Black Snake Moan" and the anachronistic term for an exaggerator (sort of an abstract jab, I guess). I used a "helium voice" effect on one layer of vocal, which comes across sort of similar to the effect in "Tomorrow Never Knows" and the skipping crunchy static noise is similar to some of the stop that comes out in Do Make Say Think's label-mate Fly Pan Am. Here for example is Jeunesse Sonique.

REM - Crush with Eyeliner

I was just rocking out in the shower to the Megachild song Bannisters. I was thinking about how to lift this song back up... and then I started thinking about the early-mid nineties album Monster from R.E.M. This album provided ample anthems for my early high school years, although I remember that I ultimately traded the album with a friend in order to get my hands on Soundgarden's Superunknown. Although I still love that Soundgarden album (which also provides great anthems, especially "My Wave", which sticks in my head when I am surfing, and "Fell on Black Days" is a great song to sing along with on a long drive).

R.E.M. had already established themselves well before Monster, and some might even say that this album is not among their greatest works. It met with fairly great commercial success, as I remember, especially the single "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" Although there were a few mellow numbers on the album, there was a rocking fuzzy-reverbed & distorted guitar component that was characteristic of most of the album. "Crush with Eyeliner" is a song with a moderate tempo that exemplifies that guitar work, paired with some groovy bass work, and Michael Stipe's fun & bizarre lyrics.

I'm thinking that Bannisters could adopt a little bit of the sound from Monster, if our gear permits it.

Deerhunter Blog

The band deerhunter often leaves aural/visual goodies on their blog site. I really like the mix of music available for download you can get at this link. Esp. listen to the Beach Boys' Can't Wait Too Long (shows up about 42 minutes into the mix and finishes it up)

enjoy.

Energetic Crooning

To keep up with the different ideas around the song Stair Bears, here is a song from Arcade Fire. I like the persistent energy of this song, and I guess that the phrasing of my lyrics are largely substitutable for the melody of the song. It wouldn't be the first time that I write a song from the melody of another when its stuck in my head and I can't remember the lyrics of the original.

Keep the Car Running


Also, I mentioned in the earlier post that there was a vocal/keyboard refrain that was reminiscent of "Voices Carry".... it originally started as something a little bit more in the vein of Beach Boys, which has also been recaptured by bands like Animal Collective. Hear them croon with weird water/paper crinkling sound effects in this tune:

"College"

Obvious Connections. Black Moth Super Rainbow and the Velvet Underground

The end of "Stair Bears" turns into a synthed out, drummy, psychedelia fest, with vocals that are pretty Jim Morrison-y in yell mode.... the music is sort of like Black Moth Super Rainbow, but if we could regularly achieve such heights of synthed out drummy psychedelia fest, I would be... well... psyched.



The visuals at a BMSR show are reminiscent of Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable...

Strange Sources- Phil Collins, Hall & Oates, Iggy Pop

Simple bass lines. These could underlie the new Megachild song "Stair Bears". Stair Bears also has a nice keyboard refrain (it started as a crooning vocal refrain) that could give it another layer of hook. I think of it similar to the keyboard hook from a previous post by Slig.... "Voices Carry"

Phil Collins - Can't Hurry Love


Hall & Oates - Maneater


Iggy Pop - Lust for Life