The first two bars I used to play on the electric piano but couldn’t figure out how to make it into a (pop) song. This is more fun.
Music
Mad Men Theme Chords
I know there’s a full R2J2 song I haven’t heard yet, but since we’re marathoning MM I had to figure out at least this part. With capo on the 4th fret it’s easier to work the melody in.
x-0-2-2-1-1 C#m x-0-2-2-1-0 (x 2) x-2-3-2-x-0 D#m7-5 x-2-3-2-3-x (x 2) 0-x-3-2-3-x C#m/G# 0-x-2-2-1-x (x 2) x-x-1-2-1-x D#7-9/G x-x-1-2-0-x (x 2) 0-x-0-1-1-x G#7+ 0-x-0-1-0-x (x 2) x-0-4-2-1-0 C#m6 (C#m the 2nd time)
The final synth harmony is a low C# and slightly flat B with rich harmonics implying a C#7 (major).
Goodbye Trish Keenan
The singer of one of my favorite bands passed away.
It is with great sadness we announce that Trish Keenan from Broadcast passed away at 9am this morning in hospital. She died from complications with pneumonia after battling the illness for two weeks in intensive care.
Our thoughts go out to James, Martin, her friends and her family and we request that the public respect their wishes for privacy at this time.
This is an untimely tragic loss and we will miss Trish dearly – a unique voice, an extraordinary talent and a beautiful human being. Rest in Peace. [Warp records]
2000 Brian Wilson “Pet Sounds Symphony” Show Review
Brittle Stars 2000 East Coast Tour Diary
Less is More: Billie Davis 1969
“Nobody’s Home to Go Home To” was a 1969 B-side for Billie Davis that I have a weakness for. The bass playing is incredible and the song cleverly jumps between three keys, but the strings and backing vocals kind of take over the recording. I noticed this morning that they’re both panned hard right and the vocal is centered, so I got to work.
- Dumped the right channel to make a mono track of the left, leaving all the essentials: drums, bass, piano, elec & acoustic guitars, a quiet organ, tambourine, and the vocal.
- Made several surgical cuts to bass frequencies that took over the mix at points.
- Mitigated some incidents of “breathing” and “pumping” in the breaks. This is where a compressor had turned up the gain while the band’s last note of a section was fading out. This can be done to great effect (after the snare hit at 0:21 in Elvis Costello’s “Busy Bodies”), but on this track it just sounded like a someone with coffee jitters was leaning on a fader, and it made the snare hits that preceded the following sections unnaturally loud.
- Raised some high frequencies to bring some sparkle to the vocal
- Added a tiny bit of stereo echo to widen the sound
In the result, you get a more interesting intro (IMO) and a tighter rhythm section, and you can actually hear the piano, the backbeat snaps of the electric guitar, what sounds like a low temple block on the snare hits, and Billie’s quiet falsettos at the end of the choruses.
[audio:http://www.mrclay.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Billie-Davis-Nobodys-Home-To-Go-Home-To-mrclay-remaster.mp3|titles=Billie Davis – Nobody’s Home To Go Home To (mrclay remaster)]Too much time on hands
Notation of the first half or so of “Baby Lulu” by Stereolab. [original]
Hit the play button at the top left to make it go. Their built-in instruments sound like crap. This is state of the art of sampling in a Flash app apparently.
Plastic Sitars Intro for piano
I’ve been playing more music lately, but also trying to go back and learn the fundamentals of reading/writing music and keyboard playing—I can play chords and pop melodies semi reliably but suck at playing scales with either hand. Yesterday I created a free account at Noteflight, which lets you compose scores online (you have to enter notes via mouse/keyboard, but the UI is pretty quick once you get the hang of it). The import feature successfully digested a 15 year old MIDI file of something I wrote in college.
The (yet unrecorded) French Horns song “Plastic Sitars” always started with rhythm guitar live, but for a few months I’ve been toying with a short solo guitar piece as an intro, ideally stealing Johnny Smith’s tone. Below is a piano arrangement for my tour of airport cocktail lounges.
Chords: The Flaming Lips “All We Have is Now”
[Song on YouTube] All the tabs I could find were crap, so I wrote up a guitar arrangement. The inverted voicings in the choruses made it tough to figure out, but capoing the 2nd fret gets it pretty close.
Capo 2nd fret. / = 1/4 note V1) A 3-5-5-4-3-x (2 bars) As logic stands you couldn't meet a man who's from the G#m 2-4-4-2-2-x (2 bars) future. A 3-5-5-4-3-x (2 bars) But logic broke as he appeared he spoke about the G#m 2-4-4-2-2-x (2 bars) future. B 5-7-7-6-5-x (1 bar) "We're not gonna A 3-5-5-4-3-x (1 bar) make it." B 5-7-7-6-5-x (1 bar) He explained how the A 3-5-5-4-3-x (1 bar) end will come. A 3-5-5-4-3-x (2 bars) You and me were never meant to be part of the G#m 2-4-4-2-2-x (1 bar) future. B x-0-7-6-5-x / / Bsus4add9 x-0-x-4-3-x / Bmaj7 x-0-6-6-5-x / C) Amaj7 3-2-0-0-0-2 (1 bar) All we Dmaj7/F# 0-3-2-0-0-0 (1 bar) have is C#m7/G# 2-2-4-2-3-2 (1 bar) now. F#7sus4 0-x-2-2-3-x / / F# 0-x-2-1-0-0 / / All we've ever had is now. All we have is now. Amaj7 3-2-0-0-0-2 (1 bar) All we've Dmaj7/F# 0-3-2-0-0-0 (1 bar) ever had i- G#m7 2-4-2-2-2-2 (2 bars) is now. B1) F#m7 0-2-2-0-3-x (1 bar) B7 x-0-2-0-2-0 (1 bar) V2) I noticed that he had a watch and hat that looked familiar. He was me from a dimension torn free of the future. "We're not gonna make it." He explained how the end will come. You and me were never meant to be part of the future. C) B2) F#m7 0-7-5-7-x-x (2 bars) Emaj9 x-5-4-6-5-x (2 bars) D9-5 8-x-8-7-7-x (2 bars) A 3-x-0-0-0-3 (2 bars) Bm6/F# 0-0-2-2-1-2 (1 bar) E7/G# 2-0-0-2-1-2 (1 bar) Outro) Amaj7 3-2-0-0-0-2 (1 bar) All we Dmaj7/F# 0-3-2-0-0-0 (1 bar) have is C#m7/G# 2-2-0-2-0-x (end) now. ... C#m9 x-2-0-2-2-x (organ adds D#) ... C#m11 x-2-0-2-2-0 (synth adds F#)
Bass for Stereolab’s “Miss Modular”
“Miss Modular” has an amazing bass line. It’s probably looped on record, but they play it live…and usually faster than the recording. I’m fairly sure it’s capoed at the 7th fret—that’s how I’ve typed it up here.
Stereolab "Miss Modular" Capo bass @ 7th fret. spaces/numbers/hyphens = 1/16th notes. / = 1/4 notes. Intro) / / / / / D 2--- A 4--- 4- E 4--- B 0------- 0---2----- 0------------------------------- Verse) / / / / / / / / D 2--- A 4--- 4- 4--- 4--- 2- E 4--- 5-2--- B 0------- 0h1h2----- 0------- 0--- / / / / / / / / D 2--- A 4--- 4-- 2- 4--- 4-- 2- E 5---2--- 4--- 4--- B 0------/ 2------- 2---
Notes:
- Mute all the strings, but mostly the bottom 3.
- At the beginning of the 3rd measure, by fretting the A on the 2nd string, you can slide the end of the low B up to meet it.
- Chords are just Bm7 and C#m7 (the brass makes A and C#m9 chords)