Trust Tommy

The Cave – Mumford and Sons.

Unable to do much for the rest of the day – epically tired. Will probably end up doing 3 Photo365s in one go tomorrow. Oh dear, sometimes I think I put myself on too many schedules…

Released in 1985, Take On Me is a synth-pop number from the band’s first album Hunting High and Low.

The song reached poll position on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1985, thanks in no small part to the wide exposure its music video got (see YouTube video above).

The video features the band in a pencil-sketch/live-action combination called retrospecting.

Great song really — much better than some of the stuff out today.

This week’s song is Some Devil by Dave Matthews. Simple guitaring and haunting vocals are epic.

Spent the weekend with friends in Wexford. Saw RENT and generally had an absolutely fantastic weekend. Review of the show shall follow in the next few days.

This week’s MusicSunday — Passing Afternoon by Iron & Wine

It’s a very easy song to listen to, and one which currently sits at number 7 of my 25 Top Played Songs in iTunes.

Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap, recommended by Olivia.

Those are some pretty sweet drums. I think I’ll go learn them — next drumming video, anyone? :)

I’ve always loved smooth jazz like this, so Jamie Cullum really should feature in my music library more than it should. The video is also live, which is unusual for me. The sound quality is pristine though, which is why I like it :) Here he is doing a number from Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, I Get a Kick Out of You.

It seems I’m awful at keeping this up, half of them are belated.. like this one! :)

A bit of nostalgia, Thin Lizzy on Top of the Pops (a show I imagine I’d have loved, but I wasn’t around) doing Jailbreak. I prefer this to The Boys are Back in Town, I think. I know John will murder me for such sacrilege but I just prefer it. Guitar riffs are growing with me.

Maybe that should be my 2010 resolution!

To-do

1. Take electric guitar.
2. Learn to play electric guitar and drums simultaneously.
3. We could totally fit a harmonica on top of that lads.

Soon…

You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon.

I have great memories of Paul Simon as he is irreversibly connected to my childhood. We used to have Graceland, one of his best albums, and we’d bring it to France with us. I remember travelling around some roundabout in the South of France and thinking Homeward Bound was some celebrity by the way Paul Simon sang that he wished that I could be.. Homeward Bound (I wish I wa-a-a-aas) Homeward Bound!.

Then, some years later, I figured it out.

My version’s better.

Well, because it’s the holidays, I just lose track of the days. When you’re doing nothing but drumming and playing cards, you can’t really differentiate which is a weekend day and which is a weekday. C’est impossible!

Yes, I’ve joined the Glee train, and this week’s song is Don’t Stop Believin’.

There’s a drumming video in the works but some of the intricacies are tripping me up, especially in the post-production, placing the song over the video. How I make them is relatively simple. Because the music is louder, I always drum to headphones rather than speakers. Using I movie on my MacBook, I record myself playing the piece through headphones, which leaves me with the drumming track, but no music. After that it’s a simple case of adding the song over the video and moving along the starting point of the song in iMovie until it’s at the same place as the starting point of the song through the headphones.

I’ll do a how-to video with screenshots and arrows and explanations of all processes involved soon. Stay tuned!

This next song isn’t well known, and therefore I haven’t found a YouTube video for it, but here’s an MP3 for it:

The song is called Book of Endings by Adam Pascal who describes it as inspired by those dreaded f***ing internet chatrooms.. I mean, I need to know what the 14 year old’s demographic is saying about me… and I go to them sometimes and I see all the wonderful things you little angels say about me and all the horrible things you little b***ards say about me…”

All I think is that it has wicked drums in it. Fricking studio drummers.. not half as fun or engaging as a dedicated drummer in a band. It’s like, they come in, they play, and once they’re paid, they leave and that’s that. They’re like prostitutes – you get what you wanted but there’s no sense of personableness and you just know they’ve done it before with a load of other folks so what makes you special?

Which am I talking about there? Prostitutes or studio drummers? Applies to both…