The Smiley Smile Message Board

I would rather people listen to my original music but the thread I posted didn't get any responses so I figured people would go for this. I would've covered something from side B of Today but this was easier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xouj4DyeaTM

Sweet cover with lots of energy, what song from Today were you going to do?

nah I mean that as a general statement, in that I'm not capable of covering something that complex and making it beautiful like a lot of people here.

I did listen to your original stuff, but I wasn't able to give it enough time so I didn't say anything. It was pretty good, sounds lush.

As for this, well..... It's Ding Dang for ten minutes  :lol

:rock which is why it gets a thumbs up from me!

The best part about DD is that it only has one chord!

Once again I thank you for taking the time to listen to / watch my things.

Farmcore, I just didn't happen to have a pick at the time, and in terms of the straw hat, I wasn't wearing it just for the video, I wore that hat every day for like 6 months, haha.

John Allyn Smith Sails I screwed up a lot but the Sloop reference at the end is what made me start listening to the band that performed it (Okkervil River) in the first place.

Bright Eyes are one of my favorite bands and they do a few silly song titled ("Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh" is another one). As for "You Will"... I attribute my emotion in the performance to the fact that it's a song I really relate to and it's just a very emotional song in general.


If you're talking about the toilet paper video, the first song is Mike Melvoin's cover of Lady Jane by the Rolling Stones and track in the bathroom scene is by Merzbow who is a Japanese noise artist. It's cool that you think my avant-garde stuff is reminiscent of Merzbow!

Typically the stuff I post on my youtube channel is very unprepared and done on a whim. It makes sense that you would like my studio stuff better because I actually tried to make it sound good. All of the cover songs I posted I didn't know how to play before 5 minutes before recording the video, and in a lot of them I'm reading the lyrics off the computer screen.

I would have to listen to hours of noise music to tell you for certain which Merzbow song it is, but I think it might be from the OM Electrique album, perhaps the first or second track.

The soundcloud page I mainly use for demos and songs I recorded when I was a kid and silly stuff, so it's no surprise those are the two songs that stood out to you. Those are two songs I've written recently and I plan on recording them better eventually. The instrument I used there is the autoharp.

Looks like this:
(http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/texta/images/Autoharp.jpg)

It's also what I played on the title track of "Abstracts".

I wrote "Breathe In, Leave Out" on piano and but I'm not skilled enough to perform a piano version that I'm satisfied with... yet.

Breathe in Leave Out is about how time and distance can be considered the same thing due to the rotation of the earth. If you travelled back in time to six months ago, you would be in space, because the earth is on the other side of the sun. Even two hours ago the earth was in a different place than it is now.

I think I'm generally a poor singer with limited range, though I tend to sing songs better the more I get used to them, and this demo was recorded shortly after I finished writing the song. I never specifically write a melody line for the vocal part so it takes me awhile to standardize exactly what I'm singing.

yeah I recorded the newly-uploaded album (Drinking of You) almost a year ago in a single night but never bothered uploading it until the other day. Most of the songs are already on my live album, Drunk on Stage.

and thank you, but both of them were totally my fault. Most of the songs on Drinking of You are about how I drink too much and how that affects my relationships.

Yeah I did the tracklisting. If bandcamp picked didn't let you choose the tracklisting I'd have to use another website. The echo vocals are because I wanted those sections to be multi-tracked but didn't want to record another vocal so I just copied them and delayed them a second.

I play at a regular open mic night, so my friends that I know from there know some of my songs (because I play them in front of them) but that's about it. and sometimes when I'm drunk at parties I'll play songs but usually everyone goes into the other room. my parents like "Applepicking".

See, people don't like "Everytime I Hear Your Name" because it's too sad, but that's exactly what I want it to be - too sad. So if that people's main complaint then I think it was a success. In general I find it interesting you hear so many 60s vocalists in my singing... probably my biggest inspiration for singing in a lower voice to communicate sadness is Stephin Merritt from the Magnetic Fields. I think I also got a bit of inspiration from Tim Kasher (of The Good Life), he sings deep on a few of his songs too. I've always just wanted to write a sad drunken love songs album in the vein of The Good Life's "Album of the Year" or "Black Out", or Death Cab for Cutie's "Transatlanticism". Of course, my general understanding for chord progressions and melodies probably come from all the 60s music I listen to.

For the final question, I go through phases where I like different things that I've recorded... which is often why I end up recording something and not putting it on the internet until a year later. But my go-to one favorite recording of mine is "Persephone 2 & 3 (Children of Demeter)" by Black Hybrid Swan Fatigue.

Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side isn't Stephin Merritt, that's Dudley Klute. I like his voice too but not as much as Stephin's. Here, check this one out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQOrLamT0n4
And all the Good Life's songs are sad, even the ones in major keys.