Todd A., whose Popshot.net zine morphed into Americanzine.net while I wasn't looking, is doing some major cyberbusking: thirty songs in thirty days. Apparently written day by day and from the looks of things mostly inspired by various hot girls he observes in daily life. A brave and honest man. The latest is an ode to Fox News presenter Laurie Dhue. He's trying to raise $3,000 for a worthy cause (his own personal use.) He certainly deserves something-- go on and check him out. Good luck, man.
As for my own cyberbusking, I know I said I'd cyberbusk "She Runs Out When the Money Does," and I still have the vague intention of doing it if I ever get my act together. A few usual suspects (including this guy, whose official live debut I'm truly sorry to have to miss) have claimed they worked up their own versions of the song based on my lyrics, but recordings have yet to materialize as far as I know. It might be more interesting to hear theirs before unleashing mine; on the other hand, neither may ever happen. I mean, let's be honest. I was also thinking I might cyberbusk some acoustic versions of some of the album songs that didn't end up on "eight little songs." Ambition struggles with lethargy, as so often. Watch this space.
Posted by Dr. Frank at October 7, 2003 06:11 PM | TrackBackcyberbusking...hmm sounds messy. hahaha GAAAA 3 weeks is FAR 2 long to wait for the new CD...but i guess it will have 2 be done - i know the wait will be worth it...by the way I was wondering Dr. Frank if you ever got my letter and such. and have you settled on a CD title yet?
Posted by: Allyson at October 7, 2003 06:47 PMHey Frank, do you remember who I am? 'Cos I was just wondering if you were still interested in getting ahold of TA-80 to do some stuff. I you are, send me an email. I know you have my addy from this and written on you converse shoe box. =)
Posted by: Amy 80 at October 7, 2003 07:16 PMJohn Crosby from VAST has some kind of cyber busking thing going on. My friend Gums keeps using my paypal account to buy his songs. Anyway the idea seems to be that you download 3 or 4 unmastered demo songs for 3 bucks and then you listen to them and leave feedback. That way Crosby gets feedback from the hardcore fans and the most popular songs go on the eventual album. I think.
www.realvast.com
-/Bal
Posted by: Bal at October 7, 2003 08:58 PMWhy bother writing a song from scratch? Just substitute "Laurie Dhue" for "Peggy Sue" and you're done. ;)
Posted by: JB at October 8, 2003 01:35 AMBuddy Holly originally wrote Peggy Sue about a girl called Cindy Lou. I think. And one of them was his friends mother. Or maybe this was a dream I had...
-/Bal
Posted by: Pinhead Bal at October 8, 2003 04:38 PMIt was his friend's girlfriend.
Posted by: Amy 80 at October 8, 2003 06:54 PMThat's what I meant. Did I not say that?
-/Bal
Posted by: Bal at October 8, 2003 08:22 PMon the subject of "Eight Little Songs".. is there any chance you could provide us with a little information on how the CD was recorded? for bedroom demos, they sound very very good, and the production is nice, clean and warm. it sounds great. and the songs aren't bad either. ;)
more bands should do this whole home-demo thing! keep them coming.
and, incidentally.. "Peggy Sue" was the name of Buddy Holly's drummer's girlfriend.
Posted by: Mark at October 11, 2003 02:17 AMThanks, Mark. I did the best I could, though Lord knows it's not perfect. I used an ADAT (8 tracks); a cheap Alesis mixer, the bottom of the line Alesis compressor, a cheap reverb and an Effectron delay. Mics were just a 57 beta and a 58. I submixed multiple tracks of back up vox and guitars, but mostly kept the other tracks pretty clean. I've found you're best off not eqing anything too much when you have crappy equipment. Otherwise, I followed no plan, but just did everything pretty randomly.
Posted by: Dr. Frank at October 11, 2003 10:07 PMIt's interesting to hear Frank say "I've found you're best off not eqing anything too much when you have crappy equipment" because my (admittedly, much less) experience is that clever eq-ing can fake a better recording. Especially when you're only working with four or eight tracks, EQ can be used to space the sound out a little more. Otherwise, at least for me, things get quite crowded.
Posted by: todd at October 12, 2003 05:25 PM