When errrrrrbody was at South By Southwest this year, Javelins woke up early one day and recorded a live session for the awesome Radio K in Minneapolis. They set up shop at a recording studio during the festival and had a bunch of bands in. It was great, and they are real nice folks.
I got a package in the mail the other day with the Javs session and interview. Thought it might be worth posting here on this internet blog.
Dudes did 4 songs:
“The Pounding”
“Out On The Sand”
“Heavy Meadows”
“Red Handed”
They also recorded a hilariously awkward interview.
Download it here, or listen to that shit right here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
So one of my favorite songs is “Pixeleen” from Steely Dan’s 2003 Everything Must Go album. Tonight I realized I hadn’t searched YouTube for play-alongs of the song before. One of the best things you can do with your time is watch other people fuck up Steely Dan songs on YouTube. It is the best.
Here’s the song for reference:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Here is THIS GUY doing THIS (watch until he hits the ride cymbal on his right):
My fascination with Auto-Tune has reached the point where I’m hyper aware of any mention of it. Seems like it’s everywhere lately, and I can’t stop jammin’ “Blame It” (Side note: how genius is the new iTunes pricing system? Like I’m not going to pay $1.29 to have the song immediately?).
Yesterday evevning I was planning a blog post about Auto-Tune, and this morning I see that our friends at The Post-Rockist have a new podcast feature up about auto-tune and “Blame It.” It’s everywhere.
Anyway, I’ll get to my point. I read a really good piece about auto-tune yesterday here.
A choice quote:
“Rather than novelty or some warped mimetic response to computers, Auto-Tune is a contemporary strategy for intimacy with the digital. As such, it becomes quite humanizing. Auto-Tune operates as a duet between the electronics and the personal.”
But there’s more crazy interesting stuff in the piece. Specifically, how T-Pain and Lil Wayne record with Auto-Tune using live-input processing. Meaning, the tracks aren’t “auto-tuned” during the mixing process. This speaks of the awesomeness of technology and improved computing POWER. This also explains how some singers will use it in live performance. T-Pain knows what vocal runs are going to sound great with Auto-Tune, because he sings them through the effect as he records. In my experience with the plugin, vocal runs that sound “good” without Auto-Tune sound “bad” when the effect is placed on the track. You have to adopt a different style of singing. The Frieze Magazine piece also mentions this:
“Vocal runs that would sound bizarre without Auto-Tune have become necessary to create somenow-common effects.”
Check out Jamie Foxx live on Jimmy Kimmel’s show recently. That’s live-input working it’s magic:
Those chord changes that the band makes at the start of the second verse are THE BEST
Another thing I learned about Auto-Tune in that essay is the omnipresence of the effect in contemporary Rai and Raggada music of the Arab world. Sure enough, a cursory search on YouTube reveals a shit-ton of awesomeness:
Also, check out the Rai section of musicmaroc.com, the playlist is fucking awesome. Lamine’s “Mon Bled” is a monster.
