New Demo: We R Doctor Funkenstein
Spent Sunday recording this and then made some tweaks and got a mix together today. Pretty much the same process as for ‘The End of the World’: cranked it out using Project5 and the little Line6 GearBox. Had to dig out my M-Audio Firewire 410 interface to record vocals as I didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting a microphone into the 1/4″ input of the GearBox. That turned out to be a mistake as the 410 is really a POS that always has driver problems. It almost destroyed my laptop (had to do a serious CHKDSK) but finally got it working although it wouldn’t work side-by-side with the Line6 box.
Not the George Clinton song, but man is P-Funk awesome
The whole goal of demos is to record something simply and easily but it wasn’t the case this time. But technology aside it was pretty easy to come up with the parts to go with the main guitar and vocal lines and Beki and I had some fun Sunday night singing background vocals. The song and mix aren’t very tight but it got a draft down on tape (so to speak) so that we can start playing it as a band in rehearsal. Which won’t be until next month when Ken gets back from his Euro vacation.
For once I wrote a 3-minute song. It’s a simple little ditty with some covert messages about peace and social justice. But mostly just a little ditty…
You can stream it from the player below (you can also download it from there, actually) or right-click and save from the link below.
Peace, y’all!
Three Cheers for Fleet Foxes
Some days you read stuff that makes your heart feel good. That’s what we felt today when we read Hypebot’s article on Fleet Foxes. Singer Robin Pecknold definitely hasn’t let success go to his head, saying among other things that illegally downloading songs helped his musical growth and that Fleet Foxes would never, ever sign with a major label.
Fleet Foxes bringing light to the indie music world
Here’s a quote from his blog that Exclaim picked up:
“Fleet Foxes will never, ever, under no circumstances, from now until the world chokes on gas fumes, sign to a major label. This includes all subsidiaries or permutations thereunder. Till we die.
“I just don’t see the point. Most major labels seem anti-music. We’ve pursued no such deal with Virgin (or been pursued to my knowledge, I think it was just a bit of news they reported) and would be idiots to be unhappy with our fam of label folks. It is true though that all copies of the CD LP will now include a free copy of the EP (like it is currently with the vinyl), but that’s not a ’special limited edition,’ it’ll be that way in perpetuity, no extra cost or packaging change.”
Unlike other successful artists (cough, cough, Metallica) Fleet Foxes say they don’t give a fig if fans download their songs illegally:
As much music as musicians can hear, that will only make music richer as an art form,” singer Robin Pecknold told the BBC. “I think we’re seeing that now with tons of new bands that are amazing, and are doing way better music now than was being made pre-Napster.”
“I’ve downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records – why would I care if somebody downloads ours? That’s such a petty thing to care about,” says Pecknold. “I mean, how much money does one person need? I think it’s disgusting when people complain about that, personally.”
This makes us glad that we bought their first album and makes even more excited for the next one (which, BTW, they are recording now in a northwest home studio). We’re all for legal downloading and use our Rhapsody subscription to listen to tons of new bands, but honestly, if you don’t have the money why should you be deprived of hearing new music? Support artists as much as you can but keep listening by any means necessary.
We’ll leave you with a clip of Fleet Foxes video for White Winter. Funnily enough, tried to put a link to their appearance on SNL but NBC had blocked the video–kind of makes the case for them being better off on Sub Pop rather than working for a major media conglomerate, doesn’t it? Peace.
