840 tracks by Robert James
Short and sweet. Nice and hyper. The mix is a little ratty, but I can live with it on a Tuesday afternoon. Lyrically I think this is the most milage I've ever gotten out of the fewest words. I'm just winning all around.
This is the 50th…
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I really like the chorus in this one. I don't know if it's the pick up notes in the vocals, or the key change coming out of the verse, but I just dig it.
The rhythm guitar is a Gibson ES-335 into a Klon KTR into a Malaise Forever Black Lives…
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Did you see any of the articles recently that talked about the John Cage piece? Cage wrote what is unquestionably the slowest piece of music ever performed. A machine was designed in order to play the entire piece and recently it changed chord…
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I was going for something here... I don't know what it was, but I didn't get it. It's not the worst thing ever. I like the strummy guitar solos. The chorus isn't so bad. I don't know. I might just be tired, but I think this one is going to…
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This one is okay. Nothing special. The whole stream of conscious lyric writing approach got a little screwy here when the second verse went really dark but the chorus was kinda up and happy. Oh well.
I kinda like the chorus here. A few…
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A nice, bouncy little ditty, eh?
This has two tie backs to the 1980's. First, the lead guitar. Back in the late 80's I was not a guitar gear junkie at all. That addiction only developed a few years ago. Back then it was Les Paul -> Wah…
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I think we have a winner here.
I already had 50 songs in process for the 50/90 challenge and I was starting to feel like I was going to finish with time to spare. Then my wife and I were having a Facetime call with my step daughter who is…
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I keep waffling on whether I like this one or not. Right now I'm okay with it, but sometimes I just want to junk it. I think I'm too close to all of this stuff to know what's good and what isn't.
The star of the show here is clearly the Garageband…
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Okay, this one is all about being a guitar gear nerd.
Wet/Dry. You play through two amplifiers. One amplifier gets a dry signal and the other gets all of the effects. The idea is you can crank up the effects without having to worry about…
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The lyrics were off the top of my head so if you're wondering how I really feel, or what I'm talking about... let's just say there's a lot of stupid out there right now and a lot of it has important jobs. Dig?
Kinda funky. Not bad. Maybe…
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If my song writing comfort zone lives at about 70 beats per minute, it's nice to double it now and then. This one is 144. A fun change of pace.
I like this one. I don't love it. I doubled the voice in the chorus because I wanted to add…
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Sometimes when I'm working on rhythm guitar parts I have to make sure I remember Robin Trower's third album (For Earth Below) where he put a ton of distinct rhythm guitar tracks on most of the songs and most of those rhythm guitar tracks are flooded…
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This is one of only two songs from this year's 50/90 that was started on guitar rather than bass. It's also one of three where the vocals were recorded on a day where I couldn't sing in tune to save my life. It's also one of three where the…
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Generally speaking I like this one, but there are some catches.
1. The vocals for this song, along with two others, were recorded on a day when I just didn't have it. I couldn't hit a pitch if you painted a big target on it.
2. I recorded…
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I almost like this one. I was into it while I was putting it together (percussion overload, babie!) and playing the rhythm guitar parts was kinda fun. I had a really hard time with the vocals. I just couldn't find the pitches anywhere. Singing…
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I don't like the chorus in this one at all. Everything else is okay but the chorus... let's just file it under "it seemed like a good idea at the time" and forget all about it.
Guitars are all Gibson ES-335 Pro. Amps on all guitar tracks…
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I don't hate it outright... but I don't really like it either. The chorus is okay, the groove is okay... maybe I just need to re-record it and play better. Maybe just tone down the grunge a little. I don't know. It's not a complete loss, but…
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Nothing special about this one except that it broke my one songwriting challenge rule: I rewrote part of it. The lyrics. I wrote the melody and a set of lyrics that fit late one night and even before I conked out for the night I knew it was…
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50/90 runs from July 4 through October 1. Three months. When I work on it I tend to break the project up into four pieces. Songs started and finished in each of the three months, and songs that cross between months. This is the only cross…
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I managed to work on 16 songs for this year's 50/90 before I did something strummy in 6/8 time. I've started working on another 21 songs since and I've yet to do another one. That will likely change before today ends. Sorry, strummy songs in…
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