Let's hear YOUR music!

Cafe Society
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Hey everyone,

I got the OK from the CS mods to start this thread. It’s obvious from a lot of the posts I read that many of us are musicians, whether of the hobbyist, semi-pro or professional kind. This is a thread for sharing, listening, and (if desired) frank but constructive feedback of fellow Dopers’ recorded work.

I’ll start, with two bands I’ve been in recently.

One Cent Stamp (yes, the source of my Doper name): Punk-inflected rock in the vein of Foo Fighters or Green Day, with more lead guitar than either of them. I’m playing the guitar here, doing most of the backup vocals and a few of the lead vocals. I wrote the music for all of the songs here and the lyrics for “Exit 27.”

Kodiak: Garage-y hard rock that reminds me of Weezer meets Motley Crue. These guys were already a trio for a year or two before I joined; I was pretty much the “hired gun on lead guitar.” Which is not to say I don’t enjoy their music - I do - only that I didn’t write any of this or contribute much to the creative process except for small tweaks in arrangements.

So…let me know what you think, and let us hear your stuff! :slight_smile:

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Here is one group I’m involved in, Its a Trad/Folk group from newfoundland, called the Dardanelles. Dardanelles - The Flowing Bowl Set

On Myspace I have two tracks, one is from a group I used to be a member of called the Mark Belbin Quintet, Theres a CD out if anyones really interested The other is a piece I composed For a percussion ensemble that I play in called the Scruncheons. Myspace

The rest/majority of the stuff I do is usually Orchestra based, and i do not have any recordings of me playing in them!
Enjoy!

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My band’s in my sig…there’s 5 songs on our MySpace page. We just laid down basic tracks for 7 songs this past weekend.

We’re basically 3 guys playing 3 chords in under 3 minutes per. I play guitar, sing, and write the songs.

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Hope you meant it when you asked what we think. :wink:

The guitar work in One Cent Stamp is really good. All the music is excellent actually. The lead singer, however, is not great. His voice is too weak for the kind of music you’re playing, and it doesn’t sound natural at all. It sounds like he’s trying his damndest to do a Billie Joe impression, and it just aint good.

OK, pretty much everything above applies for Kodiak. Except I could understand what the singer in OCS was saying. :wink: Again, great work on the music though.

percussion, very cool! I can’t listen to that kind of music for more than 30 seconds before I go nuts, but everyone there (in all the bands you linked) is obviously very talented.

An Arky - very cool! Honestly, I read your description and expected the worst. :o That’s good stuff though, I’m impressed.

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Here is the link to my band’s Myspace page. For those of you who’ve been there before, I don’t think we’ve loaded any new songs up - sorry. If you have not been to the page, then “I Need to Know” or “All Right Now” are a couple of chestnuts worth listening to to get a sense of how we sound…

**One Cent Stamp ** - thanks for starting the thread and sharing your music. I like what I hear, and can see where **slacker **is coming from…

**percussion ** - cool trad folk! Reminds of seeing small combos in pubs in Scotland when I lived there - very cool. Are you the playing the standing congas or the hand drum?

An Arky - I just love your stuff. I had heard Rich Man, but the other tracks really stand out - good songs, great singing and I love the tone of your guitar - is that a Ricky through a Vox? If I had the time and energy to transition from a cover band to an originals band, I would want to do songs in the same space as yours - melodic and agressive.

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http://www.bigmonsterlove.com and Big Monster Love | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos are where you can hear my recent music. I play lo-fi folky pop.

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Thanks, WordMan! (and Slacker) You’re a great guitarist and you should absolutely go original. What do you have to lose? (notice I didn’t ask about what there is to gain…power pop is the kiss of death to any band who succeeds in making it, see Badfinger, the Plimsouls, etc.). :smiley:

Yeah, I recorded with my Rick 330 through one of those hand-wired VOX AC30s. I did a bit of rhythm through an Orange, as well. We just recorded with the same guy last weekend, but he sold the VOX, so I did basic tracks through a Gate head and VOX cab. Live, I play through a Marshall 50-watt half stack…believe it or not, it works well with the Rick. We’ll be getting that new stuff out this summer. [/shoptalk]

I’m impressed with every one of your entries so far. I should come to expect that Dopers make good music. But I have to say that if there’s anyone who feels embarrassed about thowing their stuff up there for us to hear should get over it and pony up. I hear the song and the emotional core in everything and recording/execution are really secondary to me. Give it up, Dopers!

BTW, percussion, it’s funny, I grew up in a town called Dardanelle, which is in Yell County, the name of my band…

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My husband: Website and MySpace.

We always have trouble deciding how to describe his music. Mostly rock, with rootsy Americana, country, blues and ambient mixed in. New album is mixed and will be out in September. Yay!

Can’t wait to dive into the other music in this thread. Great fun!

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What do I have to lose? My sanity! :smiley: Seriously, I have 2 kids who play 3-4 games of soccer and little league per weekend, a full-time executive position where I am leading a couple of projects that could fundamentally change the path of my company and all the usual obligations that come from being married with a mortgage, etc. Fitting in a covers band is hard enough! Having said that, I have submitted a couple of songs to the band simply because my mind works that way - and we have found it hard to stick with it and follow through to complete them. Also, we only want to play gigs maybe 10 times a year and the crowd who shows up is looking to hear familiar, rocking party songs - even playing cool songs that are a bit off the radar screen can get people sitting down - a commitment to originals is something where you need to really ensure you are getting your music out there and positioning your band differently with your audience. I respect the heck out of what you are doing, but honestly can’t imagine trying it…

And as for power pop - jeez don’t get me started. Two words: Big Star. But every now and then a Fountains of Wayne breaks a little and hope is restored.

Those AC30’s are great - but they weigh so MUCH! Is the Orange that new hand-wired combo that goes for a bit over $1000? Those things are great - I played through one and loved the warm gain. And you will never hear me complain about a good Marshall; I can completely believe that your Ricky would sound great through it - but you gotta get a P-90 guitar - nothing better, hum and all!

[hijack]
Does your Ricky have a slim neck? I would love to try a Rick, but keep hearing how slim the necks are - I am a fully-committed chunky-neck-preferring kinda guy…but a Rick 620 just looks amazing to me…
[/hijack]

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I haven’t noticed them being all that thin, really, and I used to play a Les Paul Std as well. But I’m not that picky, I can tell the difference, but I don’t play a lot of lead so it’s not all that marked.

What you may notice is the fingerboard is varnished…don’t know if you’ll like that or not…

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Here is some of my stuff

then click on ‘music’

All written and played by me - as seen by the song ‘Made In Macau’
MiM

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Here is a link to my stuff on youtube. I have absolutely zero recording skills so cut me some slack on the quality. I play all the pieces and vocals, then layer them together. I really really need to get an electric guitar again and a few drum loops…sigh.

Anyway…It definetly falls into the goth category, with heavy influences from traditional music, blues, doom metal and more. I’m currently limited to acoustic drumless performances though. Musically inclined dopers in the Orlando area drop me a PM if you care to jam sometime.

plug plug plug

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Im playing congas, Rich Klass is playing the Bodhran

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A band I was in/co-leading for a while, Deja Nous. It’s French-language jazz and music hall type stuff.

The link is directly to a page with a few tracks off the CD we recorded. I still play as a stand-in pianist, but the group has a whole new lineup (aside from the singer), and isn’t as good any more (IMHO of course! :slight_smile: ).

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Slacker, thanks for the feedback. I agree re: the singer. Incidentally, he (my best friend before as well as after that band) would agree as well. As far as my guitar playing goes, thanks! I don’t know whether you (or anyone else) got this far, but the last two One Cent Stamp songs are the only ones where I really uncork decently speedy solos. Other than that, it was just trying to find parts that sounded good.

percussion, I really enjoyed the Dardanelles. Like some of the other posters, my tolerance for unhyphenated Irish folk music (as opposed to Celt-rock or Celt-punk) is fairly modest, but I watched the YouTube clip raptly and am listening to it again in the background as I type this. Bravo. I could definitely throw down a pint or four (I’ll have a Belhaven Wee Heavy, if that isn’t treason) with you guys playing in the background!

An Arky, I’ve loved The Jam since I was in junior high school. I love this stuff. It has a scruffiness and attitude I totally dig but have never been able to duplicate in my own music; I’m too much the closet metalhead and my playing comes out too crunchy and precise. Damn you. “Buried Standing Up” makes me want to close my guitar case.

WordMan, I think you guys sound like a lot of fun. I think your sound is a little more appealing when Mary’s singing, but that’s after just four songs - in a full set, I’m sure the variety is welcome. The best thing you have posted on MySpace right now is that version of “Tainted Love.” It’s wonderfully sludgy and sleazy. I was, however, disappointed you didn’t launch into a verse of “Where Did Our Love Go?” afterwards. Hello?

An Gadaí, when you said “lo-fi,” you meant it. I really like some of the little ear candy you have going on in the background; the music isn’t nearly as minimalist as it sounds at first blush. If I were baked tonight, I’d be listening to “modem.age.dreams” 30 times in a row right now, marveling at all the little bleeps and squeeks and whonks in the spaces between the chords and notes.

Beadalin, I hope he’s able to do that as his full-time job. He’s a fucking ace. His guitar tones - and there are many - are all stellar, and he has a terrific ear for composition and arrangement. There are so many instrumental guitarists (even well-known pros) whose recordings are little more than them wailing over backing tracks. It’s nice to hear rootsy, county-inflected music that sounds neither cheesy (Nashville) nor ironic (alt.).

Made In Macau, all of your songs were interesting (and a few beautiful), but the song “Made In Macau” is my favorite of these. I like how it started out pretty sparse, then started to get dense, hectic and a little trippy around mid-song. I felt as if it ended early…I could have stood another three or four minutes of you continuing to develop those musical ideas (presumably in weirder and weirder directions). Take that as high praise: this child of the Ramones, Buzzcocks and Wire rarely asks for three or four more minutes of anything.

Acid Lamp, loved the Cold War propaganda footage. The music reminds me of a lo-fi Sisters of Mercy or Mission UK. Which is a good thing. The one drawback I can see is that it doesn’t seem to really go anywhere. If that’s your goal - to be atmospheric and doomy - then disregard me and go about your business, because you definitely achieved that. However, this conoisseur of three minute, four chord pop songs was surprised when the song ended, because I felt it was still building towards somthing.

Eonwe, I speak French, so I ate this up hook, line and sinker. I would totally throw this on my stereo while feeding some special lady a sumptuous repast of coq au vin which I prepared myself, and only hope that we could finish dinner before I had her bent over the kitchen table. Such are your powers. Oh, and you’re a really good pianist.

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From 1969-71 I was in a high school garage band. I wrote lots of high school-type lyrics, played lousy bass, and sang tuneless vocals. We weren’t any good, but we had a lot of fun. We recorded lots of weird stuff using various equipment, some of it home-made. We even had a free concert for our friends, played in the shadow of a giant paper-mache toadstool, if you can imagine that.

The ringleader of the band still plays and records today, and he’s created a website complete with our “discography”. Lots of photos, a nice narrative, and some really, um, interesting sound clips. There’s also more current stuff that he’s done with one of the other guys from our band.

So, for your amusement (and potential ridicule?), I present the one-and-only website dedicated to The Baja Brigade.

Now, remember, this was a bunch of kids in high school goofing off…the website is really just for fun.

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heh, thanks man, and please feel free to, we get bombed as we play so you should get bombed as you listen! (bombed = drunk)

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Here is my latest thing:

The Porn Tune

The intro is a bit off and there is one really bad bend I need to fix. I am going to work on it a bit more tomorrow.

Dagny’s Song

Lullaby. Need to finish recording this thing. I have a little recurring melody that pops up and I noodle around it.

The Yet To Be Finished Spanish Tune. This is one of the first things I recorded when I got my home studio setup. I got it about 3/4s of the way done and started learning how to do other stuff and never got around to finishing it. I might get it done this week…

I have a ton of other stuff but I can’t find a freaking singer so they are sitting till I can find someone who can sing.

I’ll probably post more tomorrow.

Wordman, your stuff sounds great. I still want you to solo on Evolution if we can arrange it. Shoot me an email about it if you get a chance.

An Arky, I am digging it. Good stuff.

OneCentStamp, great guitar work.

Slee

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Thanks for the positive comments, One Cent Stamp and sleestak…I’m a little embarrassed to have guys who can play circles around me complimenting my stuff. I’m a fraudulent dilletante, really… :o

One Cent, I think your singer’s fine…he has that SoCal pop-punk kind of voice that’s popular these days. He just as good as any of those guys, IMO. I think you are definitely more to the metal side of the house, though. Very chunky and sturm und drang…I think you do well in that vein. You might be more complimented, vocally, by someone more evil-sounding.

slee, dang, are you Nick Drake’s and Eddie Van Halen’s lovechild?

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(snip)

Thanks for the commentary, this thread is a great idea. In actuality, this song is linked into about 9 others in a continuous play album. It was certainly intended to be atmosphereic in nature, though my lack of skills in the editing/mixing arena are blatant. I’m currently trying to record a revised version, with drumline and electric guitar; and working on the new album which I intend to be more piecemeal in nature. The other videos also from that album that i’ve bothered to post are available on youtube as well