Maura just came in and asked, "What are you listening to?" "Some songs. By a person named heebie-geebie. Do you like them?" "Yeah. [then she swayed to the music a bit] Heebie-geebie is a funny name." You'll appreciate this better when HP is six.
I like 'em, h-g. Also, it's "exhilarating".
I went back and forth between your comment and the original spelling three times, thinking "no, I put the 'h' in! Didn't I?" before I realized you were correcting something else.
This is probably as good a thread as any on which to mention that I will likely be in Austin August 11 or 12. Further updates as plans solidify.
I will probably be getting back in town on the 12th.
dear heebie-geebie, I love your music. love, siobhán
Why thanks, Siobhán. I'm so glad you like my songs!
I don't think a band with only one member should have a plural name.
7: What's your thought on The National's name, ned?
The music is most excellent! I was pleasantly surprised (as in, the second to last sentence made me wonder slightly, but as soon as I gave it a go I realized that you're just being modest. You have more than a decent singing voice!).
I don't think a band with only one member should have a plural name.
I believe this is also the case for The Mountain Goats, and I happen to enjoy the trend.
though iirc it was a one man show for quite a while, but not for years now.
9: Yeah TMG is always the same front man with a bunch of people changing. And this song by them is hated by exactly 50% of the people I play it for and loved by the other 50%. I fall into the later group.
10-11 is more accurate. Front dude and the same bassist.
My comments would be better if I had knowledge and training and education and experience. And sophistication. And the ability to spell. But I liked your songs, too.
12: They've a number of songs with that sort of split, I think --- `no children' is another.
Oh! And I haven't commented on heebie's songs, not because I'm a jerk (I mean, I am a jerk, but that's not why), but rather because I've commented over at her jam several times that they're great and totally workable into full-band projects.
And the double-recording vocals thing? It's an old trick, but, man, it gets me every time. I love that sound.
There are people who don't like "This Year"? Weird.
I don't really like any of their songs with Erik Friedlander, including that one but excluding "Woke Up New".
It's true. Stanley is not being a jerk.
Neither is Parenthetical! Thanks!
(Neither is anyone. You're all very nice.)
Thanks for posting these heebie!
And the double-recording vocals thing?
I think I sound like the twin girls from The Shining.
that trick works for (some) instruments similarly
I like the circus music riff on "Andreas".
23: I was just thinking: hey, people do that for guitars, too.
24: yes.
Not really a complaint, heebie, but by about 3/4 through the list I was looking a harder tempo shift I think
My wife just wandered into my office and said one of those things that gets you into trouble because you don't hear it while reading Unfogged. Then Heebie sang "She goes to get a glass of wine" in "The Rorschach Test" and she said, "Ooh, that's a good idea" and left.
I know, I'm totally stuck in a tempo rut.
28: You can fly me down to play drums. I change tempos all the time. Sometimes even when I'm not supposed to!
I see the effect of HBGB's music on wandering wives has already been discussed.
28: Would it help to rework some of the stuff you already have down flat into different styles? I mean as an exercise, even if it ends up being goofy?
OMG, we should totally put together an Unfogged supergroup. I'm good for accordion, ukulele or good ol' guitar. And some songs I want to be tambourine and shoop shoop.
28: I don't know that I have the patience to do so, without having some bigger goal to work towards....
...like the UNFOGGED SUPERGROUP! I want to be Roy Orbison.
I want to be Roy Orbison.
Who doesn't?
On second read Maura appears like more of a daughter.
re UNFOGGED SUPERGROUP -- Heebie, what program are you recording in? If you're game, you could pass around your songs for track contributions. Not quite the same as summer outside Austin with the amps up to eleven out the barn, but I'm game.
12: If that's really This Year, then that's my favorite Mountain Goats album (I can't access Youtube for some reason right now).
10,11: Yes, I was thinking of the early days while conveniently forgetting that there are many more people involved in most of The Mountain Goats albums.
35: I totally would. Which song?
I'm using an external little digital mixer, and then transfering the tracks to i-tunes.
Jammies just read over my shoulder and said, "You're exporting them as wave files from the mixer. That's what he wants to know."
37: It's the song "This Year" of the album The Sunset Tree, my own personal favorite of theirs.
Jammies added, "We would mix them using audacity/lame."
Then I said, "Can't I just re-put them on the little mixer and mix them there?"
Jammies said, "Sure, whatever. But other people do this on a computer."
34: Who doesn't?
I want to be Fay Wray.
39: I'd nearly forgotten John Darnielle until Sunset Tree came out and I saw a show by accident when he was touring it. Quite an album, that, and made me go back and look at his older stuff again.
You have to respect a lyricist who can pull of lines like Our love is like the border between Greece and Albania and actually make them work.
So heebie, you're just storing every track as a .wav? How many tracks can your little mixer handle?
Thank you, Jammies. The best thing would be to get separate wav files for the drums, keyboards and vocals. At the very least, vocals separated out.
your call on the song. I was going to say The Disappointment Song, but I quite like the existing arrangement.
Who else is in?
When one of my old bandmates was having a bout of depression, we round-robined a recording of "Umbrella" for him. (The choice was slightly inspired by a close reading.) Somehow none of them knew the original song, and they all loved it, especially the depressed one.
43: Well, it's a 4-track mixer, but then I can bounce them down to a single track and add more, so as many as we want, although they are unremixable once they're bounced down.
(An unremixable bird is not the pelican.)
37: It's the song "This Year" of the album The Sunset Tree, my own personal favorite of theirs.
Mine too. For some dorky reasons, granted, but I think, contra neb, that it's an awesome album.
Who else is in?
Wait, to do what now? I'm set up to record drums, and I could probably make sure they came through as a .wav file, but it would (I think?) be unmixable (that is, among individual drums/cymbals) once I made it all one file. I think. I don't know what I'm talking about, actually. I just tell smarter people to hit record.
Also you could just send us the charts, and you could get back totally different versions upon which to lay down vocals.
When nattargcm gets up, we gotta get him in the band.
Ooh! Ooh! I'm in for a supergroup. I need a reason to pick up the guitar+keys+laptop.
Well, it's a 4-track mixer, but then I can bounce them down
Yeah, that's the nature of mixing. I haven't done any really since 4-track tape in a garage days (and not a whole ton now). But it sounds like you have at least the ability to lay them all onto disk somewhere, even if you aren't using it at the moment.
I don't know what I'm talking about, actually.
Well at some point you'd have one track per mic, right? So you could dump those in some useful format if you wanted to, surely.
"and not a whole ton now"
should have been "and not a whole ton then"
What are 'the charts'? Do I need to write down a musical score? Or some rough chord version? Is this an incriminating question?
But it sounds like you have at least the ability to lay them all onto disk somewhere, even if you aren't using it at the moment.
True. I think that's why Jammies is encouraging me to try out Audacity instead of the little mixer.
charts are more towards "rough chord version", though detail may vary. Might have the melodic line on staff, might not, ime....
I'm up for any of the songs, really. We should discuss pros and cons about which ones would lend themselves to this project.
Well at some point you'd have one track per mic, right? So you could dump those in some useful format if you wanted to, surely.
At present, my band is recording with ProTools, so my drums are set up with individual mics on: hi-hat, snare, rack tom, floor tom, bass drum, plus two overhead mics. That's seven tracks. Is that sendable? I really don't know.
47: Stanley, you don't have to make it all one file. If you're set up to record four tracks of drums, you can bundle them all together and send them on. Even if no two people have the same recording program (I'm sure a couple of us have Garageband), as long as they have the same start and end, you could send them as separate wav tracks and we can keep them mixable.
We could bounce them down for people who don't have multitrack capacity -- for example, if we wind up with eighty-eight tracks by forty-four people and Heebie wants to record vocals over one other track, we bounce it down, get her vox as a single track, and we can still mix it from one location.
I think there's a website set up for multitrack collaboration. I'll see if I can find it...
54:
I don't know audacity at all, but he's probably right --- it's got to be easier to mash a bunch of tracks around with.
A few years ago I bought a little external sound card which came with cubase ... and was immediately impressed how far cheapish things had come since 4-track analog, but I've never done much at that end. I've heard some surprisingly good mixes out of the free one apple gives you with their machines, whose name I've forgotten at the moment.
57: You can set Pro Tools to export to .wav files. You just have to export each one separately. As long as you don't Pro Tools them up much, it shouldn't be a problem to use sendspace to send seven .wav (or .aif) tracks.
Is that sendable? I really don't know.
Absolutely. If nothing else as raw .wav files for each, for a lowest common denominator format. Some of the fancier formats will have more info in them potentially, but I have no idea what audacity can read...
58 ah, "garage band", that was it.
This is promising though it's not what I remembered.
ProTools, from what little I've seen of it, is a right hairy bit of work. As is Logic. I guess it's not unexpected. Cubase at least wasn't hard to get something simple out of, from what I recall.
Per soup and Wrongshore, I'm pretty sure I could make drum tracks happen. Probably we'd want to agree on what we're doing and the style first, right? The disappointment song? At the tempo and style on heebie's recording? I could make a dancy drum track happen by the end of the weekend (I gather that drums tend to go first, but I'm willing to do whatever.).
Love the music, Heebie. If you can't find a bad banjo player in Austin then I can help out.
For some reason, I hear "The Neighbor" as an arena rock anthem.
That does, indeed, look promising! If it doesn't work out for some reason--or if people decide they're more comfortable in their familiar software--emailing files around would probably be an acceptable alternate solution.
Also, why is my child awake at this hour?
I gather that drums tend to go first, but I'm willing to do whatever.
My very limited experience suggests that if they don't, you'll often end up redoing a lot of other stuff after they're down.
Maybe it's just that nobody I know can keep time.
Er, "My Neighbor". Well, not mine, but, um...
Maybe it's just that nobody I know can keep time.
Yeah, even I can't keep perfect time. I would record to a click track. That should set everyone else straight.
Are we really doing this? I'm half-excited, half-yeah-right-this'll-fizzle.
70: Yeah, I was being a bit facetious, but having a drum track to follow helps you feel where you are in the way a click track doesn't. I suspect this matters less the better you are, but for the few things I've put on tape having other bits to listen to always helped.
71: Yeah, I find it hard to follow just a click track, if only because it often isn't loud enough. I always try to record to (at least) a very basic drum track.
or if people decide they're more comfortable in their familiar software
For that matter, from the website it sounds like that works with most software directly (or can be made to)
So far, Julian's favorites seem to be "The Rorschach Test" and "My Neighbor."
I gotta crash, but I am absolutely down for all this. I'll catch up in the morning.
Judging from their reaction, my daughters would likely be up for laying down a duo vocal track. You could double it up for a children's choir effect (cf. Komar and Melamid threads).
"Do all your shopping... at Wal-Mart!"
70: Yeah, I was being a bit facetious
You were mocking drummers?!
Meh. You probably should. I have a not-perfect internal metronome. And I rush my fills.
Band in a Box is better than GarageBand for generating arrangements from a chord progression, since it uses MIDI instead of audio loops. It sounds cheesy with a standard-issue soundcard synthesizer, but if you play it through Bandstand, and then maybe quantize the tracks in ProTools or whatever, it probably would turn out pretty good.
I've got a program on my laptop that's supposed to be good for reharmonizing melodies.
...like the UNFOGGED SUPERGROUP! I want to be Roy Orbison.
I want to be A.C. Newman!
Not that I have anything to contribute to the Unfogged supergroup. I just want to be A.C. Newman. Like, as a rule.
I should have said soundfonts, not Bandstand. There's lots of programs that do that.
"Do all your shopping... at Wal-Mart!"
I'm listening to the whole schmeer again, just because I happened to think of it moments ago. Dear God, it's hypnotic.
I want to be A.C. Newman!
I think Wrongshore and I might fight you for that one. And then each other. Could get ugly.
I have a not-perfect internal metronome.
I have such an imperfect internal metronome that I was kicked out of the elementary school choir because my clapping was so far off. (However, I can play an instrument in time, but only if I'm surrounded by lots of others. Why, oh why did I do band for so long when I was clearly so hopeless?)
I note the lack of a bass player. Typical.
Okay, now I volunteer to do the tuba and bagpipe tracks.
I didn't know heebie went to Wupatki on her Grand Canyon trip.
Anyway, I like the songs. I don't really understand any of the discussion in this thread, but I gather there's some sort of planning afoot.
88: You're going to be in the video. You'll introduce the whole thing with a whole "Howdy, ma'am" bit. It's going to great.
Belatedly, because I wasn't in the listening mood earlier: this is fun stuff, heebie. I like.
But that is not at all how I would pronounce "Rorschach".
Anyway, I like the songs.
Given teo's ambivalence about music, this may count as wild enthusiasm.
89: That (and the discussion in general) reminds me that I've been idly thinking of recording some audio tours. Does anyone have any recommendations about recording devices, software, etc.? I'd only need or want something very basic.
93: NPR folks use or used until recently MiniDisc, which is harder to come upon but plenty good. How important is sound quality?
How important is sound quality?
Not super-important. It would all be spoken-word, so it would just need to be at a level of quality where that would be clearly audible.
Further to 94: This is something they're going to want to hand out to visitors to listen to, drop, jostle, and otherwise break, too?
If so, I'm curious about the end-user device. No idea, without wiring the whole place with mini-jack headphone plugs and buttons that says "Play".
This isn't something the park is doing. Just an idea of my own.
97: Oh, in that case, there are a number of recorders out there that record to flash memory that are getting cheaper by the day. Get one with a USB cord and you're set for sharing if need be.
Which, when played backward, says "Introduce me to your daughters..."
Damn it, Stanley. 99 to 97. Also, Kobe.
If I'm going to be putting in any subliminal messages, I'll need some decent editing software, right?
Maybe I'll stop into Best Buy next time I'm in town and see what they have for recorders.
If I'm going to be putting in any subliminal messages, I'll need some decent editing software, right?
It's more about finishing the apposite sentences with "...laydeez".
The end-user device would probably be an mp3 file that visitors can download to their iPods before they come to the park. You could also loan audio players in exchange for drivers licenses; that seems to be how it's done.
I want to be A.C. Newman!
I saw New Pornographers at the Hollywood Bowl. They were very excited to be there. Carl has the cutest lisp.
By the way -- while I'm very eager to realize the Unfogged Supergroup concept -- I should note that HBGB's recordings are superfun in their own right. Lo-fi, spirited. One more pass and you'll be at Mates of State level. I hope this doesn't sound condescending, but some of them have that great new-toy creativity that gets squelched as you try to Do It Right. I miss that from my teenage four-track days, as well as my solo nights when Pro Tools was new.
Before going anywhere with this, I'd ask: who's going to mix all the many different tracks down to something listenable?
Oh shit, and we need a band name for the Unfogged Supergroup! Kobe and 99 other assholes?
The Sunset Tree, my own personal favorite of theirs.
All Hail West Texas, bitch.
The New Pwnographers
But Really, My Cows
Kobe and His Bitches (alternatively His Little Bitches)
Mutombo Sex Machine
Mineshaft Explosion
The Heebsterettes
110: Cry, Cry, Masturbate, Cry would be kind of genius.
Huh. Looks like I forgot to paste the link.
You were mocking drummers?!
Only to counter act all the "Hey guys, let's do it in Fbb this time!" jokes they've told...
So, in terms of organization:
1. Register for that site Wrongshore found
2. Stanley lays down a metronomish track
3. I lay down a skeleton tune and vocals
4. Then let everyone lay down their own track
Probably we'd want to agree on what we're doing and the style first, right? The disappointment song? At the tempo and style on heebie's recording?
This sounds good to me, and not so overly ambitious that we doom ourselves to failure.
I always wanted to be part of a band called Pinetree And The Conettes, but that's not especially mineshafty.
Finally, a chance to have a band called The Angry Anger.
(Links to a player; you don't have to download anything.)
I can't bear listening to them like that, though, because your voice (which is very nice voice) constantly cuts in and cuts out as my connection tries to access the website. And for some reason it doesn't work at all to just leave them play through once jerkily on mute and a second time with the sound on so I can hear.
Sorry.
117. So you'll have to download them from Heebie's site after all...
Pseudpsie & the Jammies
Lurkers & Lur
THE LUR SUPPORT ME IN E-MAIL
115: This was the original site I knew about. Not sure which one's better.
Actually, Jammies is currently transfering everything from something, to something, so the link is down for the moment. But might work better tonight.
The Intraejaculate Sperm Selection
Front Page Posers
Mexican Swimming Post
The Althousemartins
Gay Where It Counts
123: No, those are all way too mature. Give us something really juvenile.
124: Heebie and her, like, 30 goddamn Dicks goldarn Richards?
I'm picturing an awesome "We Are the World" type video.
Pacing!
(that's a supergroup name suggestion, not a note to self)
Why would you want to ban walfsam's mam?
Blackhead Snakes
Cock and the Jokes
138 is more of an album name, I think...
Emo Schlong & the Thick Southern Drawl
Must You Be & the Such a Little Bitches
Fog the Wet Lurker
(I Don't Even Own A) Television
Foggedsy Brown
Comity Sucks
Born To Pay Full Price
Cunts and Cunts
The Aristocrats
Deprecated!
140: Shouldn't that be "The Banned"?
No, it's like Talking Heads. Or take this to Standpipe's?
141: Regardless, 138 is great.
Agreed, somehow I forgot to add "excellent" to album name there.
147: The Banned, modelled after the Damned, have better t-shirt potential.
Of course there's also Ban, after Can.
Fuck You Clown
or
The Fuck You Clowns
... too obvious I guess
147: I was thinking of The Banned.
152: Ooh, that's good too. It's so . . . polysemous!
have better t-shirt potential.
"I love you, but I've chosen pwnage."
I mean the name "(The) Banned", not LB's contribution in particular.
152: Ah, Standpipe's other blog. Funnily enough, I wasn't thinking at all.
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Comments
Semantic Bleach
Black-Scholes
Obama Squats To Pee
Heebie and the Fawning Sycophants
I Can't Believe I'm Doing This From Fucking Work
So what's the over/under on more effort going into goofy band names than in laying down tracks?
The Orange Post Title Service
Then Yglesias can write a post misattributing the vocals to someone else named heebie.
I don't think that can be quantified as an "over/under".
162: true. I should have just said "book on"
I get a "404 - Not Found" error when I click the link in the OP. Not a broken player, which would be understandable given that I'm running a steam powered abacus over here, but an actual 404 error.
Anyone else have this problem?
SUPL
(Stuff Unfogged People Like)
164: 122 might be the source of the issue you're seeing.
166: See, that's the kind of insight you get if you pay attention. Gotta work on the paying atten... Ooooh shiny!
Does anyone have any recommendations about recording devices, software, etc.? I'd only need or want something very basic.
teo, I have a cheap little digital recorder ($30 or so, as I recall) that records great sound. I've used it mostly to record my dad narrating family slides and that sort of thing. It's an Olympus, sort of like this -- I don't remember the exact model number. It comes with basic software.
On the supergroup front, not only have I previously told heebie how much I like her songs, but I already have the entire Disappointments oeuvre saved on iTunes. So don't you mineshafters-come-lately be acting like you got in on the ground floor. Some of us have stuck by heebie while she's struggled in obscurity. (So can I be in the entourage?)
I can't believe I missed the link to the songs! They'll be back up, right?
Heebie's band should be called "She's Never Wrong". Or, alternatively, "She's Always Right".
1. Register for that site Wrongshore found
2. Stanley lays down a metronomish track
3. I lay down a skeleton tune and vocals
4. Then let everyone lay down their own track
So, is everyone sending everything to Wrongshore?
"Off to Swim" sounds more like an album name, but it should be thrown in there.
173: Yeah, throw it in the deep end and we'll see if anyone salutes it.
We don't have a guest rapper yet, Kraab.
So can I be in the entourage?
You might have to sleep with a roadie or two.
163: I want no part of that bet. To wit: Howie 'n' Punch.
172: I think you upload the track(s) to the site. The link in 121 looks good to me.
PGD et al, I think the link is back up. Commence grooving.
178: Got it. I was a little unclear which site we we're settling on. Because I can't read.
I'll get on doing the basic drum track.
172: Sure, I'll ride herd on this.
I'd like charts from Heebie -- lyric sheet with chord changes written in. I'll harrumph over that using the original tunes, then send to Stanley, who will record drums over a click track. I think that's better than starting out with a scratch track from Heebie, although Stanley can be the judge of that.
Anyone who has an instrument and the means to record it should drop me a line, and we'll round-robin it from there.
If the offer of tuba was sincere, there's no need for bass guitar. But, you know, the more the merrier. Scanning the thread, I see offers of guitar+keys+laptop (emdash), tuba/bagpipes/children's choir (Jesus), banjo (Mo), drums (Stanley), and I can do accordion & a buncha other stuff. Please confirm! Too much is never enough.
182: Oh, wait. I should wait to hear from Wrongshore then?
Now that Wrongshore mentions it, a rap break in The Disappointment Song would be pretty awesome.
Remember how awesome the rap break was in that Planet Unicorn theme song remix on episode five or so? It would be like that, but even awesomer.
Things are hectic now and I can't play anything other than guitars worth a damn (and that, mostly years ago) but it sure sounds like fun.
Dammit Stanley, don't make Wrongshore beg.
185/186: Indeed. A track laid down is worth, like thirty goddamn tracks talked about in this thread.
185-6: Jeez, fine. I'll go for it already.
But for now, I'm off to try to make this.
Yay! I can provide guitar or keyboards as promised, but honestly I'm sure we have better guitarists and keyboardists just in this thread alone. I'm more confident about vocals.
Yeah, I think I can dust off my recording stuff and contribute some banjo. Mostly in the boom-chuck vein, since I wasn't very good even when I used to practice.
I'm leaving town for a week tomorrow though, so don't wait for me.
I'd like charts from Heebie -- lyric sheet with chord changes written in.
So something text-only like this? I can get that out today.
Also, i'm a big believer that tracks can be stupidly simplistic and sound marvelous, so no one should hold out merely out of fear of incompetence.
I thought "charts" at least included, like, measures and staffs and codas, if not necessarily musical notes.
196: Pff. We don't need your fancy book-learnin' myoozik.
194 is exactly right.
Recording artists, don't be shy. Email me if you want in.
Email sent. Any Portland lurkers with a spare tuba lying around should contact me.
Heebie, I'm still getting 404s on your site.
This sounds fun. I'll make an attempt on the pedal steel, although I really truly suck at that instrument. Maybe glockenspiel if that doesn't work out, or some electronic messes, which I'm good at.
Actually, Jammies is currently transfering everything from something, to something, so the link is down for the moment. But might work better tonight.
Oh good, I will try to remember to download them tonight. I also didn't get the player working.
Where/how are the charts going to be available? (I'm mostly just interested in the lyrics, which of course I could transcribe myself, but still, I'd like an official version).
Update: I recorded a very simple drum beat* tonight and will have it to Wrongshore in the next couple days.
*basically just followed the drum pattern on heebie's track, recorded with a click track to give everyone the same tempo to work from. Obviously, someone could add some other percussive stuff later if that suits the song.
Obviously, someone could add some other percussive stuff later if that suits the song.
I think a vibraphone would sound great with that song.
I'm currently sending Wrongshore the drum track files. Progress!