Nice one - move over Serge Gainsbourg & Jacques Brel!
I wish I could speak French - I love Francoise Hardy, Michel Polnareff and France Gal, l but I can't understand a bloody word!
Awesome, as always. I think you guys are RPM's hidden gem. Have you ever listened to For Stars? They're one of my favorite (though now defunct) bands. Your sound is less hyper and it reminds me of their best stuff.
Love the Buster Keaton reference!
Final version
An unaccompanied song about bedtime. Not a lullaby though. Oh no!
What does anyone think of the 'cat's moustache' line - it seems like that's a make or break call right there and i like it when i read it but it's hard to sing without…
Another example of your perfect vocal performance for the material. Another gem off this album (well, the whole thing is quite a gem, but that's another story).
Sometimes it's easier to run with the flawed routines we're familiar with than to turn over a new leaf..
Compare to "Firecracker" and "Livewire" from RPM 2010 and 2009 respectively.
Final version
Guitar, mandolin and voice.
this doesn't fit with my rpm project AT ALL so i may not use it but i like the way it came out. I recorded the music for Bethan Mathis' RPM project but she didn't have time to use it (her album is…
Lyrics:
Skip ahead to her in pants,
watch her dance in the living room
in front of all the other dinner guests.
She thumbs her nose at simulacra,
but someone must play Cleopatra
in the PTA's yearly drama fest.
Her husband broke his body…
Final version
One of my heroes. Willie McTell was blind from birth and travelled all over the south in the thirties at a time when many people would never go more than 20 miles from their home.
Plus nobody sings the blues quite like him…
With all these recordings, this year's RPM even more than last, you are aiming straight at a deep love and appreciation I have for the music of this period. Usually when people go for this sound, it comes across to me as either having a gross modern sheen to it that makes me want to vomit, or they're being overly reverential, killing the great old tunes in the process.
How you manage to straddle that divide and produce something that apes the genre without feeling like a copy while also not feeling the need to force it somewhere it doesn't need to be...is beyond me, and I'm all the more amazed for that. I wish I could come close to this sort of music-making fidelity.
Needless to say (?) I adore this track, absolutely adore it.
Final version of this tune - voice and guitar, banjoe accompaniment
i'm still getting used to this new mic and finding my voice sounds different with or i'm singing differently because of it. So .. feedback appreciated, and if you like it…
Final version
it needs a fiddle but it has a mandolin, a chicken banjo and some excellent backing vocalists
my third demo for RPM 2011
The cat's in the window and
the rabbit's in the hutch
goat's in the meadow just
a-chewin on the…
Another one for the RPM2011 pile. Vocals are a bit shonky so apologies for that. If you don't like the start I would give the ending a try. If you don't like that either, I'm sorry to have wasted your time. The subject matter's self-explanatory…
3rd one for RPM2011. This is an 'oh you'll never get to heaven' type affair inspired by a beer my mate introduced me too. The song is basically about drinking yourself to death and having one up on the healthy brigade having made a rather spectacular…
Final version
RPM 2011 - my first track recorded and the opening track for the CD
A kind of Old Time gospel number, which, if you listen to those pre-war guitar playing preachers, are virtually indistinguishable from blues. Except for the lyrics…
This song should be on the radio. I mean that in the best way possible, as if this song alone could fix all the ills that plague that wasteland.
Did I mention that I love it?
Comments on Rob and Laura's stuff
Too beautiful.
What a great sound - love the harmonies and the guitar solo is swell. I have a feeling you gus are just a little crazy.
Excellent vocal and the perfect accompaniment. Really enjoyed this track.
Nice one - move over Serge Gainsbourg & Jacques Brel! I wish I could speak French - I love Francoise Hardy, Michel Polnareff and France Gal, l but I can't understand a bloody word!
Beautiful - bittersweet.
Again, killer lyrics.
More duets, please (with cursing)!
Awesome... sounds like a song Harry Nilsson would have loved to record. "If there's one thing I know, I'm young and you're old" -wonderful!
Groovy... like crossing Ennio Morricone with Bud Shank!
You're killing me - wonderful vocals/lyrics... like a lo-fi Laura Nyro!
Great - reminiscent of the songs Lou Reed used to write for Mo Tucker to sing (no higher compliment)!
Just beautiful - says so much using so little. Again, great lyrics!
Awesome, as always. I think you guys are RPM's hidden gem. Have you ever listened to For Stars? They're one of my favorite (though now defunct) bands. Your sound is less hyper and it reminds me of their best stuff. Love the Buster Keaton reference!
Comments made by Rob and Laura
Another example of your perfect vocal performance for the material. Another gem off this album (well, the whole thing is quite a gem, but that's another story).
Great work on the album. It took me places that I didn't expect, and which I greatly enjoyed being taken to. Serious congratulations are in order.
terrific!
Beautiful.
Now with lyrics.
With all these recordings, this year's RPM even more than last, you are aiming straight at a deep love and appreciation I have for the music of this period. Usually when people go for this sound, it comes across to me as either having a gross modern sheen to it that makes me want to vomit, or they're being overly reverential, killing the great old tunes in the process. How you manage to straddle that divide and produce something that apes the genre without feeling like a copy while also not feeling the need to force it somewhere it doesn't need to be...is beyond me, and I'm all the more amazed for that. I wish I could come close to this sort of music-making fidelity. Needless to say (?) I adore this track, absolutely adore it.
Thanks for implying my taste is impeccable!
Super nice.
Ha! No surprise that it's wonderful.
Great song!
Special, indeed. What a great song. Love the changes, and the overall vibe. Great stuff.
whoah, so nice.
great stuff!
Love both of these.
Amazing!
This is so lovely!
Great.
Love it.
You capture the feeling of some of the great folkways recordings. I'm really loving this.
This song should be on the radio. I mean that in the best way possible, as if this song alone could fix all the ills that plague that wasteland. Did I mention that I love it?