ZeroCharlie

I saw an episode. I was impressed.

But it might be that I was remembering how funny nbc's ED was

I didn't realize there was a huge divide. I always found the indie world being divided between people who love wilco or look down on them for whatever reason. I have never heard a good reason so I can't give examples.

And also for radiohead I have always found them to be like Johnny Cash or The Beatles, in that they have such a weight to the name and their work commands respect, even from people who hate the style of music.

I have a few:

The intro riff to "Impossible Germany" kills me

The simple piano notes at the end of Chinese apple

The Piano intro to "Scythian Empires" just gets to me, the notes seem so depressing then the songs shifts into a brighter offering.

The bended note on MMJ's "Run thru"

the sax riff right after the spanish style solo on Morphine's "Bo's Veranda" (at :47)

The intro to "Idiot Kings" by Soul Coughing and the blaring sample during the first few lines (WAHHHHH WAAAAAHHHH)

The solo Jeff has on the Sunken Treasure version of "In a future Age" (at 2:00)

I Just picked up a soprano uke at this old music shop for $30! I am in love with it. I have been learning chords from the interweb (I picked it up fine after a few years of playing guitar). Here's a site I hope you enjoy, I learned "You've got a friend in me" off it.

http://www.alligatorboogaloo.com/uke/tabs.html

Just Recently I missed out on Citizen Cope solo acoustic in an old theater. He's one of my biggest influences and I feel as though seeing him play would be a life changing moment, as was when I saw wilco on a pier.

Well put. I do feel that pain does make you realize yourself, where you stand, But it should not be relished.

It is said that people must suffer for their art. That depression is both the burden and inspiration of art.

Thoughts? Personal Experiences?

thanks.

You wrote it?

Sorry. That's how I read it the first time. It would be cool though.

Including. Miles wanted to knock out Thelonious Monk, but he knew Monk could throw him through a wall, so he decided to bottle it up.

Miles Davis was a genius, but a jerk. He walked off stage when people clapped for a solo from somebody in his band. This was an interruption of his music and he stormed off. My grandfather asked for an autograph from both and he got punched in the face!

The show is pretty good I have to say, but nothing gets ruined faster then all your classmates catching on to the joke 4 years after, and only because of youtube clips which they don't even know is from a show.

They really deserve the fame though. But it's kind of like their ambiguity was part of their mystique, you know? But then I just became one of the crowd members crying sellout, aren't I? Ohh the ways of following

Haha thanks for posting! It took me three tries to finally land the thing

ok first up i am not american so pls beare with me... what i dont understand is why u2 and other non-us bands play at such a thing like the inauguration of a us president? i get the whole international goodwill thing but really... why?

Coldplay was booked. Oh wait! They're from across the pond! pop has flown the coop.

Jeff tweedy has had dinner at Obama's house. There was a pre campaign "promise" in passing that if he ever got elected Wilco could play the inauguration. I say it's only fair Wilco has done some fundraisers for him, I know Jeff even hit the phones for him. Bono couldn't even vote.

Now that I think of it, I was playing with a friend of mine and he made a call on his cell phone and held it up to his pickups. Sounded pretty Sweet. Just saying if you forget the remote, most people have a cell phone on them. No guarantees, I just saw it once and thought I'd mention it. Good luck! (goes off to try it)

Surge?

If not that then does All-Sport count? Goddamn do I miss that

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Lamb Lies Down On Broadway- Genesis

Skittish/Rockity Roll- Mike Doughty (technically two albums but when I bought them they were packaged together so I treat them as such)

Neil Young Massey Hall 1971

Radiohead- Kid A

Smashing Pumpkins- Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Soul Coughing- Irresistible Bliss

I've changed a lot. Or maybe not at all

Seriously, That was awesome!

Generally when I hear a home made cover it basically comes down to the voice. Most people are great at their instruments (whch again is true here) but you can get out of playing as much as you put into an instrument. With a voice you can tweak it, increase your range, but you're glued to that one sound, your voice (cheesy as it may sound) is a very distinct instrument. Anyway, it means I liked it. The vocals kind of reminded me of Ira from Yo La Tengo mixed with some other local band's singer. Good Stuff! Post some originals If you're feeling zesty, I'd like to hear them!

Wow, I love your enthusiasm. Good advice. You inspired me to go write a song!

I like what you have brought here Charlie. I like it very, very much. Please stick around the SST.

Wow thank you very much! I will try to join a discussion but usually I am intimidated by the SST seeing as how I don't have a clue about equipment. I was reading a thread about home recording and everyone was in agreement about the best whats and so's so they didn't mention them. I was like "Oh yeah I prefer the 64jq model the spf90000" and I ran away haha.

Ha! I guess your right. An intro kind of implies the song changes after the beginning. I guess I just like how each instrument comes in one at a time.

 

We did Cortez the Killer once for 10:47 and I think I threw my guitar everywhere.

Now if I hear that song and nobody is throwing a guitar, I will be severely disappointed.

Great advice Zero. So many musicians throw away something because they think it's too simple or an overdone chord progression. If you listen to "Sky Blue Sky, several songs are just your common A, C, D chords with a Capo on the 4th fret. The brilliance is in the lyrics and melodies Jeff Lays down.

 

The reason I mentioned listening to Guided by voices (or any Pollard for that matter) earlier is that the guy is just fearless about music. Yeah, it does not always work but he comes up with some jewels. That total freedom is tough though.

Thanks! Same to you!

And I have found myself thankful for listening to wilco so much. I had a guitar when I was little, a toy one. But I didn't start playing until I came home from a wilco concert. I knew I wanted to be a musician all my life but never knew how, it was fuzzy. Some kid dream. But that day everything made sense. I listened to all the songs on my way home (Long drive home from phily) and picked up a guitar the next day and started learning everything I could. (Handshake Drugs was the first. D, G, F) a lot of wilco songs are great for beginners because they are a few basic chords but also fun to play. I know what you're thinking. CharlieZero you just told us a pointless story about himself.

I had a point kind of. I meant that a lot of those songs are so simple. But that is half of the genius. Anybody can write a 3 chord song. Most people throw them away. It's keeping it that is genius. I have always thought that half of music is not what you put out, It's believing what you put out. I used to write a song a day. I know now they were terrible, because I was writing just to write. I had nothing to say. This is necessary to find your voice, and I'm not saying I have. Maybe I never will. But "It's the search. Not the find" right? But eventually I stopped living in song and just listened. Then everything came back. I had something to say and I said it.

Somebody said to find a hobby, which is great. Because there will be downtime. I feel useless when I'm not writing, and some days I will have nothing to say but will want to write so badly. At least for myself, this is the WORST time to write. I try to let it be natural. Like I found a drummer who will just hit a beat that moves me, and 3 minutes later I just channeled 3 minutes worth of words. I just blackout and he helps me piece together what I was singing. I am inspired by other people. It comes differently for everyone, but just saying to expect it from anywhere. You might find a picture and every time you look at it you will be moved so much where everything flows. I say this is the purest form of writing. When you don't even know what is happening, it's almost a (dare I say it) spiritual experience. Shows the core of you. When you not only write a 3 chord song, but have the gravitas to put it out saying you have something to add to it, people really respond to that. and eventually that song becomes part of the block of "songs that already used it" and thus you mark your place. (look up "cannon in A"). Wilco does it all the time, but they believe in what they are doing, and people respect that, and listen for what it is they're doing.

So I say not to worry. Your simple songs are possibly those songs that are genius in their simplicity. Your inspiration will come. It is a balance of you seeking it and it seeking you. It will come, but not from sitting in a blank room forever. Time alone does not do it. Surround yourself with a multitude of different things. All those songs you hated? Keep them. Scrap the lyrics if they aren't what you mean, or vise versa. If it came from you it means something. Hold onto them until they do. Some artists find that to ascend to a higher plane of self, they must embrace what it is they hate or fear most (think bruce wayne with the bats). For some, the hurdle of songwriting is really themselves; They hate what they've written. Some can overcome this by embracing the songs they once hated and merely tweak them for relevance sake. A little twist to make it the new you, and to maybe rough the edges of a less mindful self.

Now, I am just like you. Maybe. I don't know actually. You like wilco, that's a start. hmmm. Like Peanut Lovers Chex mix? Arizona Sweet tea? Nevermind

I mean I feel like I am in the same place. Everything I just said was both trying to help you, and actually a little of myself. I have 3 notebooks full of stuff I wrote when I was 12. (I hated the oldest ones so much I tore up the note books and threw them away. You are stronger than you think when you're mad) Anyway, I learned to try to embrace what I hate about me, and make it a strength. I have not started playing those songs for people, but I keep them in the back of my head. Hey one of them I am actually coming around to. I might use it soon. They're like little premonitions. Some you live in the next day. Some you are in already. Others you don't know. You have to grow into them. Like the one I now kind of like. It represents a part of me I only recently discovered, like years ago, I knew I would be. Kind of spooky. But it doesn't have to be. Other ones you just don't like. That's fine. But don't let the words ruin the chords for you or vise versa. There is always something to be salvaged.

Alright now that I've talked your head off I wish you the best of luck with all your songwriting endeavors. And everything above take with a grain of salt, I am no authority on songwriting, the closest I've come to being a public songwriter is burning ep's I recorded with the built in macbook mic. in my dorm for some friends. And you know that made me happier than ever so I am going to keep on going, and you should too. Who knows. We could be trying to help the next most listened to artist on our last.fm's.

Anyway, Cheers!

Yo La Tengo - Pass the Hatchet, I think I'm goodkind

That whole song is one big 10:47 opener. Though it kicks. Haha I saw it live once and Ira just threw his guitar everywhere. I think it led into Nuclear war. So much sound!

if you drive to work, take a different route. Or better yet walk. If you like your peanut butter creamy, buy chunky. if you write on guitar, try plunking some notes on the piano. call up someone you've lost touch with. get up and hour earlier. grow a moustache. listen to chinese traditional music. cross the tracks. go buy a short you don't like and then wear it. change your level of personal hygeine. perform random acts of kindness to complete strangers. experiment with paper clips. buy a goldfish. play games with salt. seek and destroy your routines. establish new ones and then destroy them too.

Well if that's not a song right there....

This and some other posts on this thread are great. You can already sense inspiration in the paragraph. When you actually do it, more will soon follow. If I may add, everything you have been doing has brought you here. Now you know where that has taken you. You feel stuck, like at the end of something. Changing things up just like the above is it. You want different ideas? Live different ideas.

Also, I was e-mailing Mark Amft a little while ago (of Drink Me...well, I wish I could say fame. They deserved it). And some of the best advice I've been given was he told me to not be afraid of doing something somebody else has done. This is great advice given you are sensible. Don't go singing a the words to an REM song to the chords of a Leo Kottke tune (cool as it may be). But at the other end don't throw away something because It is a G C D'er. And sometimes I've found I throw something away because it is just like something else. Then a friend hears it, and I play them the other song that I thought I was stealing and I can't get anyone to find a similarity. Sometimes It is all in your head.

I would love to hear what you've written, whenever you're ready. I mean hey, Wilco fans can't do no harm

I saw someone mentioned orange crush. Kudos! Though orange after so many delicious variations I tend to pop tops with the Grape crush variety.

Also, has anyone tried Boyland's? It's Great. I always get the Black Cherry but it's all in bottles and each variety uses pure cane sugar. There's grape, black cherry, cola, orange, orange creme, root beer, birch beer, ginger ale

And I agree that ginger ale is underrated. I never think to get it, but whenever it's around I say "Hey it's been a while, you're not half bad. I'll get you sometime I swear."

My dad kept giving me moxie when I was little. It is good as an experience. I think anybody that hasn't had it before would hate it. It's like a nostalgia thing. It still tastes like cough syrup to me (and not that newfangled kid friendly hyper dxm crap....mmmm) but you know what I mean. I still smile when I see it. Sometimes I get it. And make others drink it.

Anybody tried Cherry Moxie? I've only seen it once. If I saw it again I would stock up. It does evoke a dr. pepper-esque taste. What with the fact that maybe dr. pepper is cherry pop with the secret ingredient of cough syrup. Flaming Moe anyone?

That's so cool that you met him! That band actually always seemed like those guys that you start talking to during intermission at a show, relaxed and friendly.

Thank you. I got a little winded. For a second I thought I was too harsh on Durst. Then I took another listen...

How could I forget!

Rhinoceros- Smashing Pumpkins

okay It's a longer one, but

For Martha- Smashing Pumpkins

That whole song just builds until the Sick fuzz solo at 4:29

People hate on me for liking Barenaked Ladies but try out pre "one week" BNL: Gordon. Love that album, after that their stuff was either or.

So I say the slow trumpet on "Hello City" is kinda fun

or maybe the depeche mode sounding intro to "Enid"

For Beatles aside from the obvious hard Day's night I love "Misterrrrrrrrrrr Moonliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!"

Offstroke chords on "She caught the Katy"

Harmonica intro on "Fallibile"- Blues Traveler

"Be gentle with me"- The Boy Least Likely To gets my vote for cutest intro

Okay last one I swear.

"Spider Fingers"- Bruce Hornsby

I've seen it live with the noisemakers, and solo. Both times rocked.

It's been done I think before but most recently I heard it on a beck song: "one two, you know what to do"

Mountain Bed, YEM is awesome.

On That note "Dived Sky" is a sick one two. Once I learned those sliding chords It was the first thing I would play when I picked up a guitar. Makes me smile every time.

On jam bands, how about "Spine of a Dog"- Moe. ?

Back to wilco, that drumroll into "Side With the Seeds" just sucks me into the song. The silence is perfect, everybody starting at the same time. Cool Beans

Lammycat I didn't think of "Once in a lifetime" Love that little bass slide.

Dondoboy I am trying to break your heart is sick. Once I heard that opening I knew who I was. Well I like to think I did. But still Good stuff. It always reminded me of "Time"- Pink Floyd. I just got that in surround sound disk. It is crazy. to quote homer simpson: "It's like i'm livin' inside a cuckoo clock!"

Piano intros: "Firth of Fifth" Is...gahh I can't even say. Genesis was freaking sick.

Actually I put this in for one of the greatest intros ever. after the orgasmic piano, just that driving BUUUUUUMMMMM "THE PATH IS NEAR"

also on genesis I love the opening lyric to "In the Cage":

"I got sunshiiiiiiiiiiiine, In my stommmmmmmach"

also "It" just because it would fit so well in a 70's cop show

MMJ- "One Big Holiday" that riff is killer. Then it changes. Always catches me off guard.

MMJ- "Run Thru" That bend has so much power over me. It is sick on Okonokos.

John Smith: I tip my hat to you for saying "Whipping Post"

mjpuczko- Machine gun is amazing. I was Five when I first heard that. I was like "You can do that?" so cool.

How could I forget! One of my fav drum intros: "(I don't want to go to) Chelsea" -Elvis Costello (Lipstick Vogue is a close second and such awesome bass on that track)

Great Thread. What is it with me and long posts today?

Keep 'em coming!