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Monthly archives for September, 2008

Lunacy Board Downloads

Sep30
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Scottish Music from The Lunacy Board

I’ve had a few queries about making the Lunacy Board albums available on iTunes or similar, which I can finally answer, having looked into a number of possibilities. iTunes is not really an option for us at the moment, though I wouldn’t rule it out forever. For the moment we’re going with a crowd called ‘Scotloads’, who (surprise, surprise) focus on Scottish bands.

I say ‘for the moment’, because they have a pricing scheme which I think is too steep for downloads, with a fixed price of £7.99 for an album. This is pretty reasonable compared to high street CD prices, but is actually more than our standard CD price for UK buyers (though it is a bit of a saving for overseas listeners).

What is good about their system is that it will allow you to listen to a clip from every track on both albums before buying, as well as letting you buy single tracks for 79p each. Hopefully a more reasonable alternative for album downloads will be available soon, but if you just want a couple of tracks – go for it!

Just click on the scotloads logo above to see The Lunacy Board on their site.

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Masters of Song Fu – Update #8 – The Ballad of Rufus Amos Adams

Sep28
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Song Fu logo

Your task is to write a country ballad – using a backstory of your own creation – called “The Ballad of Rufus Amos Adams“.

Here’s the song for Round 3 of the Song Fu challenge (you know, the one I was knocked out of at round 1):-

Click here for the song

For some background to the song and the additional challenge I set myself, see this post. It does include all the items I mentioned, including a wobbly theremin-pretending-to-be-a-pedal-steel-guitar solo. Having now listened to the other challengers I realise that there was no yodelling, but I don’t know that would sit very well in a ballad, plus it was not in my original list, so too bad.

Here are the lyrics and chords (non-Scottish readers – minor translations included – move your mouse over a word you don’t understand):-

[verse1]  G        G           C               GI left the farm in the morning, around 6G       G             D       DFed the cattle on the wayG                G         C          GHeaded South for Dallas to pick up my girlG                  G         D        D And that's when my life went astray.

[verse2 - same chords as v1 except last line]She was waitressin' in the Korean restaurantNoodles on poodles she'd serveWhen a truck, red 'n' green, with the name of Christine    G              D          G         GToo fast round the corner did swerve

[verse3]Gm                 Gm      Cm        CmWhat happened just then, I fail to recall       Gm       Gm           Dsus4    D7But my world it descended to Hell          Gm         Gm          Cm     CmThere was kimchi and shitzhu and bodily parts in    Gm         Gm              Dsus4    D7The rubble and dust where they fell

[verse4 - same chords as v3 except last line]I grabbed the truck driver and gave him a kickin'For killin' my sweetheart so swellBut she wasn't dead - she'd just banged her headGm          D7          Gm         GAnd I spent time in the Bar-L

[chorus]G                        CI'm known around here as Amos AdamsG                     DSometimes as Rufus or Hank       G                   CI'd consider it lucky if I lived in Kentucky  G                  DInstead of a village just West of Buckie          G                    CWhere the trains are sporadic, money is tight  G                       DA bottle of Talisker gets you through the night  G                   CI wish to God that my Mama, that sod,    G        D              G         GHad named me something like Shug.

[verse5 - same as v2]Let out of prison this Christmas just pastI hoped for a change in my luckWhen I got home she wrote, on a tiny wee note"I've left with the man and his truck"

[instrumental verse - same as v2]

[verse6 - same as v2]Now I'm only a jakey from a wee Scottish townBut my life's like a Johnny Cash songMy name isn't Sue, but Rufus will doI guess Nashville is where I belong

~Chorus~... Had named me something like Tam.... or named me something like Doug... or even something like Shug

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Masters of Song Fu – Update #7

Sep24
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Song Fu logo

Your task is to write a country ballad – using a backstory of your own creation – called “The Ballad of Rufus Amos Adams“.

The song is now written, having walked around all week with a list of the requirements in my pocket and no idea how to get them all together. The answers came once I had the story behind the ballad, and the various items then all slotted into place fairly well.

It’s the story of a Scottish lad with a country and western name and the trouble that follows because of it – it sits somewhere between ‘A Boy Named Sue’ and Billy Connolly’s version of ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’. It features ALL the subjects required for the ‘perfect’ country song as well as a little reference to ‘Stobby‘. I’ll post the lyrics when the recording is complete, probably tomorrow night.

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Masters of Song Fu – Update #6

Sep20
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

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The third challenge is up and ready to begin. They’re down to just two Masters and two Challengers now, with the final round approaching soon. The latest challenge is a bit of a stinker:-

Your task is to write a country ballad – using a backstory of your own creation – called “The Ballad of Rufus Amos Adams“.

To me this is a bit of a wide-open challenge – really the song could be about anything so long as Rufus is mentioned somewhere. Time for some self-imposed restrictions to get the brain something to grab onto, but what should they be? Country is not a musical genre I’m particularly familiar with beyond the ‘classics’, and have almost no experience writing anything in that vein. The possible exceptions to that being ‘The Middle Eastern Western’, which was just a country backing to some Gulf War (v1) and old cowboy film samples, and more recently ‘Stobby’, which has a bit of a country-rock sound to it in places.

So, what makes a good country song? 10 seconds googling gives us a list for the attributes required for the ‘perfect’ country song. They are as follows:-

  1. Clever lyrics (a pun, a joke, or a play on words, preferably in the title of the song)
  2. Regret
  3. A stalwart, but flawed, protagonist
  4. A pedal steel guitar
  5. Alcohol (of course)
  6. Reverence for the land, especially the South

Steve Goodman and John Prine also suggest:-

  1. Mama
  2. Trains
  3. Trucks
  4. Prison
  5. Gettin’ drunk
  6. Farms
  7. Dead dogs
  8. Christmas

Arguments about lists like this could rage for decades, but it seem like a good start based on the country songs I’m familiar with, so here’s my additional challenge:-

Include at least 10 of the subjects required for a perfect country song from the supplied list.

Of course, I will try to get them all in the song, but that might be just too much to ask!

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Masters of Song Fu – Update #5 – The C5 Shuffle

Sep13
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

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Your challenge is to choose a famous inventor and craft a song proposing a “dance craze” based on either the inventor or one of his/her most well known inventions.

Just finished mixing this non-submission to Song Fu.

Here is a link to the song.

Sinclair C5 Press Photo

It’s called ‘The C5 Shuffle’ and the inventor in question is, of course, Sir Clive Sinclair. For those outside the UK or too young to remember, Sir Clive designed the best-selling home PC in the UK. It was pretty wretched, even for its own time, but was the door into computing for thousands. His follow-up invention was eagerly anticipated, but the battery-powered C5 was something of a failure, being both before its time and far from reliable or even practical. There are plenty of them still about, see here, but I think I’ve only ever seen one on the roads myself. From the way the vehicle is driven in the picture and the chorus of the song, it should be pretty clear how the dance works.

Here are the lyrics for the song, along with some chords for the musically inclined:-

[Verse1]GTrundling alongBSo close to the groundC3 wheels are spinning, butCmwhat's that clicking sound?

Watch out for the fumesRoundabouts are deadlyHills are out of boundsIn our electric pedalled medley

[chorus]      G            D  D7  Dm7We're gonna do the C5     C            G  G6 G       DIt's kinda like a three-wheeled jiveInvented by good old Sir CliveLet's take it for a MicrodriveAnd the Hoover motor might contriveTo get us all home alive

[Verse2]Arms close to your sidesGrab the handlebarsShoulders up and downWiggling your arseBattery's gone flatPedal for a whileNow get out and pushYou're dancing with such style

[chorus]We're gonna do the C5It's kinda like a three-wheeled jiveInvented by good old Sir CliveLet's take it for a MicrodriveAnd the Hoover motor might contriveTo get us all home alive

Gm                   F                       C2      Am7I've got used to the scornful looks from the passing carsGm                     F               Am7        C2and their comments and mocking tone so derisoryGm                             F                   C2         Am7But they'll be laughing on the other side of their facesGm                F         Am7           D              D(higher)In 10 short hours once I've recharged the battery

[Verse3]Arms close to your sidesGrab the handlebarsShoulders up and downWiggling your arseBattery's gone flatPedal for a whileNow get out and pushYou're dancing with such style

[chorus]We're gonna do the C5It's kinda like a three-wheeled jiveInvented by good old Sir CliveLet's take it for a MicrodriveAnd the Hoover motor might contriveTo get us all home alive

[alt chorus]We're gonna do the C5 (ah ah ah)It's a miracle we're stayin' alive We're gonna do the C5 (it's so delicious and moist)I dunno how we're still aliveWe're gonna do the C5 (we're heading for home)Let's hope we all arrive alive

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Masters of Song Fu – Update #4

Sep06
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

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The second round of Song Fu has begun and the next challenge has been set. As expected, I didn’t make it through to the next round, but I’m planning on following through with each of the challenges anyway. It focuses the mind and sets an unbreakable deadline to create something new. So…

Your challenge is to choose a famous inventor and craft a song proposing a “dance craze” based on either the inventor or one of his/her most well known inventions.

This struck me as a much more interesting challenge than the first, as within the space of a minute of reading this challenge I had 3 ideas about subject matter, though it quickly became apparent that only one of those was really workable. I won’t reveal any more at this stage, though I’m pretty sure that it won’t be duplicated by those still in the competition as it has a bit of a UK bias. I will say that I have already got a first draft of the lyrics written, which I’m pretty happy with. Just need to work out some music to go with them and I can get stuck into recording.

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Re: Your Brains

Sep01
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Re: Your Brains

I’ve just completed a couple of tracks (bass and guitar) for internet-based Jonathan Coulton covers band ‘The Mandelbrot Set’. Cover versions are something I generally steer clear of, mainly because I have little enough time to record my own music without revisiting something that somebody else has already recorded. However, I like JC’s approach to music, and his use of the Creative Commons licence (as we used to release ‘Difficult Second’) means that people are free to record or perform covers of his songs without fear of having their arse sued out from under them.

The song (about zombies in the office environment) is still a work-in-progress, but a basic mix can be found by visiting the JoCo forums at www.jonathancoulton.com and following the link from my post tonight. When it is finished I’ll stick a copy up here for easy access.

End of the offer

The 3-for-2 offer on our CDs has now come to an end, so your chances of getting hold of a limited ‘Difficult Second’ are slim if you missed the deadline. We have a handful left that will be distributed by other channels… Most likely as competition prizes or similar.

Of course, the album is still free to download via the web, and you can burn your own CD. In fact, burn a stack of them and give them to your friends!

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