Father Abraham presents 52pickup dot us. new songs every Thursday

52PICKEDUP

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:41:57 PST

Welcome to 52pickup.us.

This site stands as an electronic monument to my project to produce and release one song per week for all of 2009. Please feel free to thumb through the songs and posts using the links in the right sidebar. If you like my work, please consider visiting my store or clicking on the PayPal button in the right sidebar to make a donation

Click here to download a zip file containing all 52 songs.

As of 2010, I have shifted my bloggings, releases, and general e-presence to my artist site at father-abraham.com. Please visit there to stay up to date on my current and future recording projects. You can follow me on twitter at @fatherabraham.

Thanks to everyone who visited this site over the course of the year. Your feedback and support made this project possible.

52 DANCE WITH YOU [123109]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:40:42 PST

Here, let's do this together.

Download 52_Dance_With_You_123109.mp3

Download 52_Dance_With_You_RADIO_123109.mp3

That felt good. Here's the download link for the whole project:

Download 52pickup.zip

Let's talk about this a little bit.

The Song

I think it ended well. No need to talk at length about it. It's an appropriate ending, I think:aA nice showcase for my newly crafted skill set. The credit section was especially fun to do. I enjoyed doing the Rod Roddy voice. I know that I missed a few people, including (ouch) my parents, who have always been perfectly supportive of their son's misuse of his fancy-pants diploma.

I should point out that the phrase "bounced in the creek" comes from high-school hockey teammate John Root. I'm not sure what it means, except that it is bad. You don't want me to have to do it to you. Thanks, Root, for the turn of phrase.

The Year

I loved this year. It was great. I have no regrets, aside from a few technical things here and there that I might have done differently. But those don't count, and I'm leaving the whole project as-is - no edits, no "new" mixes, no nothing. As Coach Belichick would say, it is what it is, and you are fined $75,000.

One thing is clear: I am not the Breakout Act of 2009. I am still holding out hope for the years that follow, but I can honestly say that success, by any metric, is less important to me now than it ever was. I started The Indefinite Article in 2004 so I could make oddball rap music, and between then and now I managed to craft a fully health-insured lifestyle, ultra-complete with a wonderful and supportive girlfriend, that allows me four entire days per week to do just what I set out to do. Yes, I would like to get paid to make my music. Yes, if I come to the conclusion that I cannot scare up a living in this business, I will one day put the rig up on Craigslist and try something else. I'll probably try something else someday anyway, just because. But I'm happy where I am now; I feel like I'm out ahead in life, and it's fun to be out ahead.

I'm only going to ask you one more favor, after you mull over donating a few bucks in appreciation of a good year's work: if you ever feel the urge to take on a stupidly large and life-altering project like this, stop for a moment and seriously consider dropping everything to do it. One of the best decisions I ever made.

In conclusion, 2009 was a year of contrasts.

Where, From Here?

Immediately: I'll be spending the next week or two giving the studio a once-over before I start on the projects listed below. I have stared at the same spots on the walls and the ceiling for too long, so it's time to switch things up a bit. Manual labor will be fun, too. I'm serious.

Cannot Stop Will Not Stop: In January I'll be getting to work on an EP for New Hampshire synth-poppers Felix and Volcano! and a collaborative-type thing with Boston blues maven Monique Ortiz. Once those are done, I plan to either rustle up some more production gigs or get started on some new recordings of my own. Maybe some remixes. Once I get a practice space up and running I'm going to get a live group cooking again. I'm open to suggestions. Give a holler.

The Site: To tell the truth, I haven't really figured it out yet. I spent the holidays in Texas with my brothers and sisters and didn't do a whole lot of thinking about it. Next Wednesday I'll put up a new post post, which will either (a) serve as the last 52pickup post and the future welcome page for this site, or (b) define the future role of this site. If you feel strongly one way or the other, please weigh in, either via email or by using the comments field. Either way, keep a bookmark on this site and on father-abraham.com and we'll go from there.

Good year, guys. Thanks for following. I appreciate it. Feel free to get in touch with me, either via facebook, twitter, or yelling at me on the street. The icons on the top left should be in working order.

Song credits: Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

51 EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION [122409]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:53:24 PST

Merry Christmas Eve.

As I write these words I am sitting what I believe to be the final mix of song number 52. With any luck, I will be done with this deal before I leave for the holidays on Thursday morning. Here is this week's song:

Download 51_Extraordinary_Rendition_122409.mp3

Download 51_Extraordinary_Rendition_RADIO_122409.mp3

Blog!

Blog love is still trickling in, despite the early-fall halt of my internet self-promotion campaign. I made the songs-of-the-year list at Boston Band Crush. See for yourself if you don't believe me.

The Song, Quickly, So We Can Do More Superlative Playlists

You'll notice that I take a not-entirely-focused swipe at inverting (subverting? I don't know) the definition of the term "Extraordinary Rendition" to mean something along the lines of "an exceptional instance or performance of a song."

The beat is hot, and that's mostly Tuck Digz' fault. I took the backbone of the beat from a 4-minute drum bullshit that we committed to the hard drive during our string of collaborations in weeks 42, 43, and 44. Tucker did the drum performances to a click through his Roland 505 groove box, but we didn't quantize them, so there is a satisfactory amount of feel to the drums, I think. Also, check once again for live tambourine and cabasa. Live hand percussion is starting to become something of a trend, here.

Perhaps most importantly, I think I managed to make the vocals pop without relying on boosts in mid range frequencies, which should make this tune slightly easier to listen to. Let me know if you hear anything goofy. As always, I'm open to suggestions.

More Superlative Playlists

Inclusion in the playlist "Best Thematic Follow-Through" requires that (1) a song presents a unique thematic angle or viewpoint, often by way of lyrics, and that (2) I don't suddenly forget about the theme and start rapping about other things halfway through. Item (2) is a bad habit of mine that might have been exacerbated by the time constraints of the project. Let's reward me for staying focus:

04 Last Words
08 Horse Thief
10 Jacques Cousteau
14 Dirge Nowitzki
15 Playing in the Kitchen
18 He Was Sad
26 Superhero
48 Despondent Clown Rap

Download 52pickup_Best_Thematic_Follow_Through.zip

Best Beats. Subcategory: Fuck Your Speakers Up

08 Horse Thief
22 Pimp Armstrong
30 Rumble
31 Sit There (Get Your Head Right)
41 Bad Motherfucker (outro only, but holy shit, what an outro)
42 Company Man

Download 52pickup_Best_Beats_FYSU.zip

Now let's do Best Beats, Subcategory: Use of Tasteful Discretion

21 Body
25 Your Beats
38 Self-Destruct/Flower People (Self-Destruct section, mainly)
45 Que me pasa
49 Lap You

Download 52pickup_Best_Beats_UOTD.zip

Done with that!

Links

Obama to WaPo: "I didn't campaign on the public option." Of all the things he could have said that might have been true, I'm fairly sure that this was not one of them. Ugh. What to do, what to do.

That's all I have, folks. Time to go finish this project up.

Song details: (T.Dawson/A. Kinkopf). Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

50 FRIDA [121709]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:41:20 PST

Look at us, how close we are.

Download 50_Frida_121709.mp3

Schedule notes:

As announced earlier on this selfsame blog, I will be plowing right through the holidays and finishing the goddamn out of this project. Be sure to tune in on 12/24 and 12/31 for the last releases.

The Song

Not thrilled with the mix on this one. UPDATE: ACTUALLY I REALLY HATE IT. It was a tricky little song. Nothing sat right from the beginning. I started digging my own grave by deciding to orient my drums around a mono loop that I recorded into ProTools from my ASR-X back when I was making my album.* It proved remarkably resistant to my normal mono-loop-rehabbing technique of carving out frequencies and spreading them around the mix.

*Yes, I'm that desperate for ideas.

The final version of the song is actually a sketch I made and never expanded. I found a decent chord progression, heard the hook in my head, felt halfway not-bad about singing, went into the booth and recorded a first hook, a slightly more aggressive second hook, and a third, emotional-breakdown hook, with plans to mock up 16-bar verses in between. (The sobbing in that third hook, btw, is more of a cough/gag sort of thing, but it worked out in the end.) Clearly, the verses never developed, so I worked out the vocal countermelody -which I really like - for the second go-round and the outro and decided that the hook was the verse and vice versa.

Desipte my frustration with this song, I think that there is promise in my approach. I no longer think that I am uniquely terrible at singing, and my weekly work in the booth has allowed me a far greater understanding of how my voice works. I'll get better.

Playlists: Father Abraham, Loverboy?

As promised, I spent a few minutes zipping up some completely arbitrary year-end playlists for you. All playlists are in chronological order. Should be some good fun. First off, let's take a look at a first draft of the list of songs that I think will translate well with a live backing band:

05 Sleepless Nights
06 Loud Sex
07 Oscillator Blues
11 Internet Girl
17 Lum Di Lie
24 Elevator
32 I Know You
34 Hey Baby, You Look Better with the Lights Out
44 Duyipa Dudit

Christ. Listen to these and tell me I'm not pulling some sort of loverboy act. I can't wait to play a hip-hop show in Boston and see the he-think-he-cute looks on the faces of the folded-arm, I-could-do-better-than-that crowd. If you're into zip files, I got you covered:

Download 52pickup_Loverboy_Set.zip

Let's proceed. Here's a short list of my favorite vocal performances of the year, rap-wise. Set aside lyricism here; I'm talking specifically about delivery:

09 Re2Go
10 Jacques Cousteau
23 All My Friends Are CFOs
25 Your Beats
27 In Which Common Candy Items Are Referenced
33 Rhymes with Khartoum (first verse, specifically)

Download 52pickup_Vox_Delivery.zip

Let's do Best Hooks. You'll notice that songs are already beginning to repeat themselves. Well, hey:

17 Lum Di Lie
19 Over Your Shoulder
22 Pimp Armstrong
25 Your Beats
32 I Know You
36 Parking Spot
39 It's Perfect, It's Good, and It's Pleasing
47 Culture Pirates (FA Zombie RMX)

Can't take credit for that last hook. I just had the good sense to recognize that Destroy Babylon had already done most of my work for me. Download:

Download 52pickup_Best_Hooks.zip

One more playlist for today - one that I will probably not listen to, ever, because I hate them. Don't be offended if you like these songs. I have my reasons:

03 Microwave
13 Bomb
16 Sasquatch Hunted
35 Half a Parable
37 Cruella de Ill/Donner Pass Tuxedo

Download 52pickup_Why_Are_You_Downloading_This_One_For_Fucks_Sake.zip

More next week.

Links:

Composition using sounds from only Windows XP and 98.

Screw you, soda.

I'm pretty well sure we got hosed on the health insurance garbage. Unless you work in health insurance, that is.

Song details: Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

49 LAP YOU [121009]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:28:25 PST

Holy crap so close.

Download 49_Lap_You_121009.mp3

Rule #1 of Rapping and Being a Human at the Same Time

Don't rap to yourself on the subway, or on the street. In public. Don't rap to yourself in public.

Or maybe I just don't get it.

A face-hurting Nor'Easter forced me to leave the bike at home this (Wednesday) morning. I'm trying to be a year-round biker but lack a lot of the proper all-weather gear - and probably the correct tires - to really make it work. So I took the commuter rail to North Station and hopped on the Green Line downtown, upon which I had the good fortune of sitting in close proximity to Guy Who Raps to Self on Public Transportation.

He had the Fabolous voice going - the disinterested monotone with the Kermit the Frog-type back-of-throat style that is sort of popular these days, I guess, even though I was done with it after I heard Ma$e for the 97,000th time - and we were all privy to his Opinion of Himself, in rhyme form. From what I gathered, he was all about rapping, had an interest in earning money, but not perhaps via the most legal means, and he planned to have sex with women who were in committed relationships, at the emotional expense of their partners, who I presume were challenger-rappers.

Okay, I'm being a dick. I rap about that garbage too, minus the making-money-via-drug-sales part. It's all part and parcel of the characters we play. And we would all be better off to stop rapping about that. But why the public practice-performances? I don't get it. Someone explain it to me.

Now, I have to admit, the look on the face of the Beacon Hill antique sitting directly next to GWRTSOPT was priceless. It was clear that this man posed no threat whatsoever to anyone in the world, but I'll be damned if she didn't change her plans and skip her appointment at the hairdresser to head right to the apothecary for a fresh bottle of ether to take the edge off.

In conclusion, America is a land of contrasts.

The Song

Really happy with the beat. I feel like I'm doing a good job developing my ability to make three-dimensional mixes. I experimented with putting the kick way out in front of the mix, and I like the results. I really dig the rubbery feel on the pump kicks - that's my Kawai XD-5 through the Krohn-Hite.

I think the live tambourine and cabasa really contribute to the feel of the song. The slight variations in the the rhythm of each of those parts really makes the shuffle-feel work.

Quick writing note here: the bassline for the "B" section is a creation of some guy I used to know back when I was trying to get The Indefinite Article started, before it was called The Indefinite Article, and before I met any of the original members of the band. I always liked it. The guy's name was Jesse. He attended Berklee for a while and then left for the Peace Corps. Jesse, I am crediting you on writing, for what it's worth. If this song somehow makes me rich (it won't), or even if it makes me a few bucks (it won't), I will make a good faith effort to track you down.

Links

These are good. Definitely worth viewing both.

Prisencolinensinainciusol. Thank you, Sevan. I love this. I just love it. I want to be the Profesore.

I'm at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Not on the same level, but still inspired. Good band, name, too: Das Racist.

Song details: (A. Kinkopf. J. Somebody). Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

48 DESPONDENT CLOWN RAP [120309]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:57:41 PST

Hello, December.

Download 48_Despondent_Clown_Rap_120309.mp3

Download 48_Despondent_Clown_Rap_RADIO_120309.mp3

Almost done

Four more to go. It's insane. It's to the point where I barely remember having made any songs prior to week 40. In fact, I barely remember having made last week's song.

Starting next week, I'll start releasing some mini-mixtapes of 52pickup tracks, categorized by my own whimsy. I'm thinking, for starters: Best Beats; Best Rapping; Wierdest; Funniest; and perhaps Songs I Hate and Refuse to Listen To. Perhaps you will help me by circulating these among your friend-groups.

As for the future of this site, it is up in the air. Without question, it will remain up as a part of the intertube. No doubt about that. What I have not decided is whether or not I will continue to post content here. It seems sensible to move all rotating content over to father-abraham.com - and maybe to start using that site a little more, as well - and to leave this up as a mini-monument to my year of work. Thoughts? Let me know how you want me to keep in touch, and I'll do it.

All this aside, it seems that the pace of my work will continue unabated with production gigs, collaborations, and more solo releases. I plan to start dealing in the 5-song EP. I'm going to clean up my studio and start working again on January 12. No rest for the wicked.

The song

The second verse is very strong. Perhaps one of the strongest of the year. I feel like I'm right behind the beat, but snappy at the same time. Unfortunately, it follows the first verse, which I don't so much like. It turned out to be quite difficult for me to rap over the sparseness of the Farfisa pads and the syncopated kick drums.

I took a risk here by not layering any supplementary kick drums under the drum loop. I was experimenting with letting the synth dominate the low end - usually I let my kick drums do that work - while the super-compressed kick drum in the loop pushed air but didn't really generate a whole lot of "thump." Not sure what I think of it just yet. Only time will tell.

The most positive part of this song, I think, is that I finally got my vocal sound right. I have been doing my own mixes since week 41 and have had trouble getting my vocals the way I like them - too often they have a lot of mid range and now enough low end (which makes sense, since I dislike the low scoop in my voice). This time, I captured that nice, gritty chest-part* of my voice and it really helped it jump out from the mix. The delays might be a bit overwhelming, but I dig them.

*Yes, chest-part.

Links

Christian Side Hugs. What the fuck. Thanks, Rick.

Don't throw tantrums.

@bobochimp

@sexiberlusconi

Ostentatious spending is ~~out~~ in!

Song details: Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

47 CULTURE PIRATES (FATHER ABRAHAM ZOMBIE RMX) [112609]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:59:16 PST

Happy Thanksgiving. Short post this week. I'll be heading to Jersey by way of Bolt Bus. I'll let you know if I die en route.

Download 47 _Culture_Pirates_112609.mp3

Introducing Destroy Babylon

Destroy Babylon is a Boston-based sometimes-reggae band and the donor of this week's source material. I met Marc, the band's drummer and an overall shit-togetherness-savant, at EMF a few weeks back. We talked for a bit about music; he wrote a piece on Dirge Nowitzki for his blog, Music A.D.D.; he sent me the stems to his band's recent single, which can be purchased in a colored vinyl pressing that comes with a really cool book o' art; I remixed them; you are here.

This is my second straight remix, and my second straight week of having the pleasure of working with fantastic source material. I whittled down the material and chose a small loop from their Beach Boys-style hook and confined myself to the tracks from that section of the hook. In some ways, it was a necessity - they did not record this song to a click, so the track pushed and pulled in a way that is not exactly conducive to remixing. The quality of the recording from their 16-track tape machine was so beautiful that I didn't feel the need to add my usual electro-bullshit vibe to the whole thing. I just worked on the stacks and the song structure for a while until it felt right.

The message is a bit morose for a Thanksgiving Day song. I know this. I tried to give a monotone-type vocal performance to stick with the zombie theme. They're coming for you. Get it? I don't, most of the time.

Links for Which I Am Thankful

Cooking with Coolio. (thanks EQ)

PR people who earn their money. (link via Lefsetz Letter)

Things for Which I Am Thankful

Family, friends, and loved ones, and the unique opportunity to make music.

Song details: Remix of single "Culture Pirates" by Destroy Babylon. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

46 BOOTIES (FATHER ABRAHAM REMIX) [111909]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:45:46 PST

This are a good one!

Download 46_Booties_111909.mp3

Download 46_Booties_RADIO_111909.mp3

Introducing Bad Rabbits

Very proud to be giving you this song this week. The source material comes from my friends Bad Rabbits, who have been my horse of choice in the Boston scene since they pared down from their previous incarnation as The Eclectic Collective (henceforth, EC) a few years back.

Some background: The Indefinite Article and EC were roughly contemporary with one another, although EC was always around one year ahead of Indef in just about everything they did. To wit: right before we called it quits, we were in talks about setting up a booking deal with the same folks who had been booking EC for around a year. I might also note that out of the bands that we shared the stage with an multiple occasions, they were the only band that consistently gave us a thorough whoooping each time.

But times have changed, and we are all grown up now. Bad Rabbits is leaving a streak of shit-hot hotness wherever they go, and I am world the f*ck famous. I have fans in Russia. Google Analytics says so. I can't tell how many, because it is clear that they are all checking my weekly updates from the same computer. I'm thinking that they're hosting some sort of massive weekly dance party in a Stalin-era gymnasium. Suck on that, detractors.

As far as the song goes, I didn't see a whole lot of sense in messing with the groove because the synth-heavy New-Jack-revival (they call it "New Crack Swing") was right up my alley. Instead, I tweaked and stacked the drums and the synths to give myself room in the mix and focused on making subtle changes in the 8-bar sections so it stayed interesting. I swapped out a few sounds - I traded their string lead for my SK-15 because I'm a sucker for that analog crackle - and I did some sampling of their hype vocal tracks, too.

The Pro Tools session was a hoot. A whole lot of compression. Fuckloads of compression. Compression shorts. Lots of bussing and summing that I didn't understand and therefore deleted. Plug-ins that exceed the cost of my entire wall o' synths. I didn't have the final cut (record drops Dec 2), and I couldn't play their session due to the complications listed above, so I just sort of winged it. Sadly, I did not include much in the way of Bad Rabbits vocals. This is a shame, because Dua, BR's lead singer, has a set of pipes on him.

Per usual, I created my mix using my ASR-10 and the Krohn-Hite lab filter on loan from Nick Z. I got it a little dirtier than I think it was to start. I think I performed admirably, if not excellently.

I also went a little nuts on the vocals for the first time in a while, and I like the results. I have been working recently to deliver simpler, more restrained verses, with more space in the mix and less effects to bog things down. Went the other way with this one. Yelling and adrenaline. Adrenaline and yelling. Punch and Judy. Peas and carrots.

Bad Rabbits will release their debut EP, Stick Up Kids, on December 2. Grab a copy when it's out and see how my mix stacks up. Get your 3-track EP sampler here, for free:

http://www.stickupkidsep.com/

That Was a Long Entry So I Feel Justified to Leave a Few Links and Call It a Week

The Verve is putting out a new record. Although I was never a gigantic fan, I recommend reading the Wiki on Bitter Sweet Symphony. These guys got screwed.

Speaking of screwed, Abra sent me this heartwarming story of a United States Marine who was court-martialed and forced to send her infant child to foster care after her previously-granted request for more time to find an acceptable guardian for her child was revoked. It's fine, because they really needed her for that clear and realistic strategy that they have for winning the war in Afghanistan.

First ten minutes of the Lil' Wayne documentary that I will not see. My favorite part is that he refers to his lyrics off of a laptop. JUST LIKE ME.

Nick Z sends along a fantastic animated recounting of Dock Ellis' acid-fueled no-hitter.

Song Credits: Remix of "Booties" from Stick Up Kids EP by Bad Rabbits. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

45 QUE ME PASA [111209]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:28:46 PST

Notice the appropriate capitalization of the Spanish title. NOTICE IT.

Download 45_Que_me_pasa_111209.mp3

Slightly Weirder

This one is out there. You can probably guess where I meant for vocals to go. It just didn't work out like that. I had enough problems settling down the drums. I made an early executive decision to stick to the spirit of the haphazard sketch that I created using the vocal sample, an unquantized ASR-X sequencer loop, and some random line noise, and that ended up informing a lot of the stuff that I did with the arrangement later on, by which I mean it ended up eating up a lot of room in the mix.

The sample is another AM radio grab similar to the perfect/good/pleasing line from week 39 (play me!). I believe that this one is from a commercial offering help to people with bad mortgages. Really uplifting stuff.

Slightly Harried

This week will mark the first time in 45 weeks that I will release a song without next week's track already in my back pocket. I picked up a pretty nasty cough a few weeks back that has kept me from recording passable vocals. I tried tracking vocals on Monday but it was painful in many ways; I recall slight discomfort during rapping and extreme mental and emotional distress during listening-to-my-rapping. I'm hoping that I can pull through for a marathon tracking and mixing session on Friday afternoon and get this thing back on schedule.

I'm also basically out of ideas. Not in the general sense - the other day I had this idea that if everyone wore name tags for a day no one would notice because no one in Boston really looks at anyone else, anyway - but in the sense that I have very few good song sketches left on my hard drive. Remixes are helpful. Next week I will release a disgustingly awesome remix of a track from Bad Rabbits' yet-to-be-released EP (yeah - it's a [p]remix), and I'm planning to do a remix of a Destroy Babylon track for 12/3. No idea what I'll be doing for Thanksgiving. And yes, I will be plowing right through the holidays with releases on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve, because I have scheduled a 12-day break for myself starting on January 1, and neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stay this courier from the swift completion of his appointed rounds.

Links

Got some good ones this week.

City of God's Son, by Kenzo Digital. Urban crime movie created entirely from samples. Nas, Jay-Z, Ghostface, Biggie, and others are all represented. I checked out the trailer and it looks fantastic. Will have to follow up and watch the whole thing. h/t to Dom at Special Boy Films for the heads-up.

Via Glenn Greenwald: Soldiers being greeted by their dogs after returning from tours of duty.

From Ben Weiss: People of Wal-Mart. I especially like the celebrity sightings.

How not to sing 5 octaves on the piano. Watch the nostrils flare.

Song details: Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

44 DUYIPA DUDIT [110509]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:23:55 PST

Worst title ever.

Download 44_Duyipa_Dudit_110509.mp3

Download 44_Duyipa_Dudit_RADIO_110509.mp3

Got More Help

That capable Bobby McFerrin impression comes from Tuck Digz, who provided co-production and production for the last two tracks (Company Man and Spicy Topix). The vocal riff was a random idea that he contributed to Company Man when we were trying to think of what to put in the background for the second verse. My "oohs" made the cut, but I saved his take anyway, because I figured it might come in handy down the road. Prescient, I am.

If you saw Tucker walking down the street (check his myspace for pics), you wouldn't really think that he sang what he actually sang. Skinny white people aren't supposed to be able to do that. But he did it.

I'm not too high on the lyrics - as I have probably mentioned before, writing compelling lyrics on a consistent basis has been one of the most difficult parts of this project - but at the very least, they fit the aesthetic about songs. I had a prospective client in the other day and I showed him this beat without the vocals, and his gut reaction was also that this song should be about sex.

For me, the best part of this song is the bouncy sinusoid bass that pops in and out of the mix. Isolated from everything else, it's an absolutely atrocious performance - somewhere between an eighth grade jazz bassist attempting to swing and me passing out on the keyboard. But for some reason, it really fits in the mix well.

The second best part of this song is that I only have to make eight more songs.

The Economy It Hates You

Perhaps you have read about my uneasy employment situation. On the whole, I belong to the relatively fortunate group of Americans who, while seeing their opportunities for economic advancement, career goals, and future plans diminish, still has a job. I am thankful for that.

That said, it pisses me off to no end to watch celebrities mindlessly endorse complete crap. Especially when they condescend while they do it. Howie Long is a major offender. He has no actual talent. He used to play football. Now he has a square jaw and smiles while trying to get you into debt. And he doesn't have to pay for his Chevrolet.

A recent spate of Chevy commercials highlights my talking points. They all go something like this.

Howie Long: Chevy is making a comeback. Now I'm going to completely contradict myself and assert that Chevy has been making fantastic cars all along! You just didn't notice! Dick!
Strawman: But why should I buy Chevrolet when other brands are more expensive and of lower quality?

Howie Long: I could sell you water. I can't believe I even have to talk to you.

Strawman: ...

Howie Long: I am wearing glasses to seem smart.

Strawman: I don't think this is in the script.

Howie Long: "Fuel economy" is something that your kind values, I gather. Well, we have that!

Strawman: Yes, what are the numbers on that...

Howie Long: Did you say POWERTRAIN WARRANTY?

Strawman: I cannot say with conviction that this man knows how to read.

Howie Long: You seem to know what to do with your hands. Perhaps it is because you are a trained actor. How do you make them not hang awkwardly by your sides?

Strawman: You know, making several models of automobile on the same assembly isn't revolutionary. It's just reasonably intelligent.

Howie Long: At least we can both agree to blame the unions.

That's how they go.

That this man made his mark in spokesmanship attempting to convince you that Radio Shack was an acceptable place to purchase anything at all ought to raise red flags. Don't listen to him.

Song details: Chorus vocals by Tuck Digz. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

43 SPICY TOPIX [102909]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:16:18 PDT

Ever closer to the horizon.

Download 43_Spicy_Topix_102909.mp3

Download 43_Spicy_Topix_RADIO_102909.mp3

Introducing Tuck Digz (again)

This time it's less a collaboration and more me just rapping over one of Tuck's beats. It was a welcome break to get away from one of my own arrangements and get into someone else's work. The beat is Tuck's composition entirely. I added vocals and spent an hour or two on the mix, but didn't do much else. I think it's hot.

I am especially proud of myself for the line about me being 52 cards and some random female wanting to "hit the [deck]." It's one of those little twirls that makes perfect sense when you hear it - to the extent that it is almost mundane - but sort of falls apart under close inspection. I like those moments.

Ten Links I Think I Link (Six Link Edition)

If you have ever surrendered yourself to a Peter King column, you will recognize that his similarly-named segment often appears on the 5th or 6th page of his weekly stream-of-consciousness thing. Recently he mused that his lifelong dream was to be a clue in a New York Times crossword, and Brendan Quigley, friend/puzzlemaker/collaborator on I Am Not a Sailor I Am the Captain (itunes link!) obliged.

If you haven't read Marine Matthew P. Hoh's resignation letter in re: Afghanistan (.pdf), you should.

Conservative buttplug and Ricky-Gervais-in-a-funhouse-mirror-lookalike Ross Douthat and I went to the same institution of higher learning, where he wrote crap like this (link via Glenn Greenwald) that seemed harmless at the time because how could anyone seriously think that encouraging a worldwide religious face-off was even mildly sane. Apart from his duties as an asshat, Ross enjoys attempting to craft a prominent jawline by way of an NKOTB-style chinstrap beard-goatee combo.

Antoine Walker is the new Lenny Dykstra.

CCTV presents Seek and Destroy, by Arman & Max. Love this. Love cable access.

emailsfromcrazypeople.com is some decent surfing.

Yeah, another short one.

Song Details: Produced by Tuck Digz. Mixed by Father Abraham. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

42 COMPANY MAN [102209]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:27:51 PDT

YO

Download 42_Company_Man_102209.mp3

Download 42_Company_Man_RADIO_102209.mp3

Introducing Tuck Digz

I had the fortune of working with Boston producer and drummer Tuck Digz on this track, which I think came out fantastically. Tuck had been lurking on the margins of my life for quite some time - as some nebulous guy from the coffee shop down the street from where my girlfriend used to work who just happened to make beats; as a fellow remixer of Alan Wilkis' Pink and Purple (mine here; Tuck's here); as the guy who previously dated the girl who is-but-isn't dating the artist that my girlfriend assists sometimes - but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that we figured out that we might be able to make bomb-ass beats together.

You'll notice that the arrangement is a few degrees cleaner, simpler, and more spacious than most of my tracks. That's due to the presence of a voice in the room that somehow convinced me that I needn't destroy every single sound that I put into my computer. I like the feel, and I am heartened by this new discovery, which I will soon begin to ignore, because for me, over-production is a compulsion.

I love the goumbe solo that comes after each hook. Love it so much that it made its way in there twice. I especially like the amped and slightly distorted goumbe track that rings out on the right side of the mix. I think it really pulls the room together, so to speak. As it were. And what have you.

Production

If all goes well, I'll be spending a fair amount of my post-52pickup time doing production, recording, and mixing for other folks. I have a few very talented artists lined up to come work with me in my room. As a general rule, I plan on doing basics (if necessary) at New Alliance and doing overdubs and mixing in my room. It will be fun. I'll be putting up a semi-slick little studio website pretty soon (I'll be hacking tumblr again, a la father-abraham.com), but if you're a listener, you don't really need to see, because you can hear, and we all like what's going on here, so let's share that like around.

To make a short story even shorter, if you like my work, get in touch. I'm lining up clients.

Lynx

I'm not lying.

Slightly cuter.

In some markets Axe Body Spray is called Lynx. In all markets it smells like hell.

Atari made one.

Links

I will drive this into the ground so help me God.

Don't miss David Rohde's many-parted account of being held captive by the Taliban for seven months.

Song details: Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

41 BAD MOTHERFUCKER [101509]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:04:02 PDT

I didn't even bother to make a radio mix of this one. I'm not sure it has a whole lot of commercial potential, anyway. It's fun, though. Listen for yourself.

Download 41_Bad_Motherfucker_101509.mp3

You'll Notice That I Don't Rap At All on This Track, Yet It Is Not an Instrumental

You might also notice that I was at pains to conceal my voice as much as possible. That fluttering thing you hear on my voice is a tremolo from my ASR-10, set to extreme values for some range or another, which I did not write down and cannot remember. I could probably show you if you dropped by. I'm not sure I'll ever use it again, though. Might be done with it.

I'm coming around to the idea that I'm not a horrible singer, and hope to be doing less and less disguising of my voice as I progress.

You could argue that the outro, which is just the raw beat with a couple of synth tracks left on, is the best part of the song. Every once in a while I can tease that hi-mid hiss out of the Krohn-Hite filter - usually if I slam it with a signal right when it's warming up. This time I captured it nice and good-like.

Mixes

I did this one. My usual M.O. with Phil is to send him 32 bare tracks with no plug-ins, but I got so zealous with the vocal production and the drum-ducking in this song that I didn't think it would make sense to flatten it all out and have him start over. So I tried valiantly to finish it all off myself. Comments?

I'll most likely be taking this path a few more times over the coming weeks, not due to any inefficiency on Phil's part - his work has been fantastic, in my opinion - but because my current and anticipated financial position both seem to call for it quite loudly, and I am heeding that call, because I like food and heat and aspire to one day own more than one presentable pair of blue jeans.

If You're One of the People Who Likens Distaste for or Skepticism re: Obama's Nobel Prize to Taking Sides with the Terrorists, Please Stop. It's Embarrassing.

A friend linked me to Godwin's Law the other day, and I find it humorous and depressing and applicable to our current political discourse, all at the same time.

I found Matt Taibbi's take on the whole thing to be on point, as usual.

Other things of note:

Photoshop Disasters + IP Law + PR Backlash = My Kind of Thing

Former Indefinite Article member Evan Anderson is in Hotspur, who have this video out right now. God damn rockstars

See you next week, when I will once again promise to produce a more substantive post.

Song details: Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA

40 SNAKE OIL [100809]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:17:45 PDT

The last full decade.

Download 40_Snake_Oil_100809.mp3

Download 40_Snake_Oil_RADIO_100809.mp3

How are we holding up?

I hope you're doing better than I am.

You probably really want to hear about my physics test.

Look at you, taking an interest in me.

9.5 out of 39.

Next subject.

This is something of a protest song, I guess.

Let's talk about that a bit, but let's use 60s protest rock as our starting point.

It is both the solution and the problem. It is the solution because it is the purest and most innocent form of protest music that exists in our collective memory. It is the problem because it provides the context for nearly every piece of popular protest music that has followed it, and that context is now mind-numbing.*

*If you can't follow the above paragraph, please don't bother reading any further, because I do not plan to make my argument any more intelligible than the above. Save editing for senior theses.

The EMF/New Alliance complex that houses my studio is sort of the stoner rock nexus of Boston. I spend a good amount of downtime in the lounge next door to my room listening to records and trying to pretend that my self-imposed deadlines don't exist. A good majority of the music I listen to in that room is 60s guitar rock. Some of this is protest rock. I was listening to something the other day - I don't recall just what it is, but it's irrelevant to the discussion, really - and I remember thinking this music cannot happen again and being really impressed with myself for discovering such a pseudo-intellectual West Indies. My main points were:

1. Recording has changed. No matter how throwback your production methods are, you can't throw them back far enough.

The simple fact of digital recording alters the recording as a means to preserve a song for posterity. For instance, I can do a few vocal takes and then search through my playlist for little glitches in my vocal delivery that I think make my songs more interesting, more human, or just plain weird. I often do this. Bands who went straight to tape lived with flubs, too, but in a fundamentally different way. I can search for mistakes that humanize my pieces, but I can choose to exclude them. It's a stylistic choice based on an outdated mode of recording.

1a. You could always do like Jack White and record everything to tape, and then note explicitly in your liner notes that you recorded everything to tape, but do you see what you would be doing? It would still be a stylistic choice, and you would seem kind of pompous.

2. The innocence. Rock was still pretty new then. Rage against the government for an unjust war was either new or obscured by two horrific World Wars. Above-ground drug culture was new. LSD was brand-fucking new. "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procul Harum is a sincere account of a mirror actually talking to a chair in someone's mind. Nowadays, anyone with a guitar and a sense of rock history can write songs that evoke a generic drug experience. The LSD trip is an instantly recallable trope. It's a maiden trapped in a tower, guarded by a dragon. It's a buddy cop flick featuring racially mismatched protagonists. Same goes for the left-leaning imagery that has long accompanied protest music. Che Guevara is less an historic icon of the Latin American left and more a concise way to describe a specific photo treatment that makes efficient use of negative space.

I'm going to stop here.

The short way to put this is to say "postmodernism happened," and I think I'm a pretty postmodern guy.

I guess the real question to ask is: how do you express political discontent while addressing a public that is numbed to the language of protest? How do you do it in a medium that is tired of carrying that message? What do you say when everyone knows what you're going to say already?

These questions are especially vexing as the lovefest for Woodstock and 1968 continues to be shoved up our asses by our parents,* most of whom it just so happens went on to wage a whole crap of a lot of war in our name. Now we're on the cusp of getting control of the country and turning into the fucker-uppers ourselves, and I for one still cannot get a grasp for any new language of protest.

* And it's not over. Not by a longshot. Just wait until 2019, when the 50th anniversary of Woodstock rolls around. By that time it will have reached "Greatest Generation" fever pitch.

I don't have any answers to these questions, but they make me hesitant to attempt to write songs that would go in the "political" pile. This song, especially, while stubbornly competent, owes too much to early-90s underground rap to stand out in any huge way. I like my dumb head-bangers better, anyway.

More Blog Like:

FensePost went all out with the flattery. I appreciate it.

Boston Band Crush surprised me with another post.

Song Details: Mixed by Phil Gorey. Mastered by Rob Gonella at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

39 IT'S PERFECT, IT'S GOOD, AND IT'S PLEASING [100109]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:34:33 PDT

Download 39_Its_Perfect_Its_Good_and_Its_Pleasing_100109.mp3

Download 39_Its_Perfect_Its_Good_and_Its_Pleasing_RADIO_100109.mp3

It Finally Happened

I really shouldn't be too upset about this.

Last Wednesday my boss called me into her office and informed me that my not-extension had been undone and that my contract had been un-not-extended through the end of December, at which point it would once again be not-extended. A three month stay of execution. Fantastic news for my brain. However, when my body heard about it, it figured that it no longer had to put up with 15-to 18-hour days of job searching, music production, physics-trying-to-learning, and personal hygiene, so it shut down, and as such I am somewhat ill.

AM Radio is Fantastic

Honestly. If you listened to AM radio more often, you wouldn't really be surprised that Glenn Beck existed. It's a batshit medium. I was hurting for ideas a few weeks ago, so I set up a mic next to the old Philco radio/turntable that I had recently picked up from my dad before he moved down to Texas. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get the mic set up before the conclusion of a learn-to-speak-Chinese show that seemed to have been paid for by the Chinese government. Point is, if you want evidence that the Chinese are planning to take over the world - which I imagine many AM radio listeners do - there you go. Evidence.

Also AM radio likes to talk a lot about the New England Patriots.

The show from which I pulled the sample from the hook, which I believe was entitled Whiny Latin Guy Wants You To Give His Church Some Money, came on after I had learned the Chinese phrases for "surrender," "informing the government of your neighbor's activities is a totally awesome thing to do," and "yes you may park your tank on my front lawn." The main themes of the show were:

1) Jesus forgives you.
2) Why don't you just give us some money.

To be honest, I really didn't process much else, because I was simultaneously scanning for something with a good cadence and mesmerized by how our host had elevated whining to a high art form. The guy was phenomenal. He could have been reading off of a shopping list. The quote that you hear - "It's perfect, it's good, and it's pleasing. It's pleasing, that's nothing bad, better than that" - was in reference to the love of Jesus, provided you were a donor. Jesus appreciates your largesse.

Then I added drums and synths and yelled into the microphone a bit.

Physics Quiz Thursday

This is why I'm done writing.

Song details: Mastered by Rob Gonella at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

38 SELF-DESTRUCT/FLOWER PEOPLE [092409]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:13:54 PDT

Download 38_Self_Destruct_092409.mp3

What is this, an instrumental?

Yes.

It sounds like you might have had one song called "Self-Destruct" and another called "Flower People," and you couldn't figure out what to do with either of them, so you just grafted them together.

Might could.

Is that all I'm going to get from you today? Terseness?

...

That's mature.

I'm on the iTunes.

Not me, really. Now that would be technology! My record, I Am Not a Sailor I Am the Captain, is on the iTunes. If you have been waiting for the digital copy to become available for you to trade money for, this is your day. Go here or go home.

Snoop Doggy Dogg Need To Get A Jobby Job

Name that music video.

Yesterday I applied to be a part-time package handler at the Logan Airport UPS. The things we do for health insurance.

This wouldn't be a horrible job. I'm pretty sure I'm capable of zoning out for 6 hours a day with little to no effort. The application might have been the most painful/amazing part. About two thirds of the way through the 45 minute online application process, I was directed to a lengthy list of crimes that I might have committed. Let's check out crimes 13-18:

Good thing McCoy couldn't make those sedition charges stick. McCoy. Those eyebrows could make a mother convict her own son.

If Only Blog Love Paid Better

Blastercase came back for more.

Okay, so I wouldn't be making that much money.

On a related note, please see links to all blog/press clippings in the right sidebar. Looking good, right?

My Physics Homework Hurts Your Literacy

If RC circuits were even remotely intelligible to me, you would have more to read today.

Song details: Mixed by Phil Gorey. Mastered by Rob Gonella at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

37 CRUELLA DE ILL/DONNER PASS TUXEDO [091709]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:47:16 PDT

Download 37_Cruella_De_Ill_091709.mp3

Welcome to the Doldrums.

For me, at least. Fighting fatigue and lack of direction right now. How do you fight "lack of direction," you ask? Same way you fight any broadly-defined concept: with guns and bombs, tempered by debates on cable television.

In other news, I was always jealous that a car and a tollbooth just showed up in Milo's room.

You'll notice that I posted links to all of my blog clippings in the right sidebar. It's a bit out of the way, but I couldn't think of what to move. Suggestions?

Welcome to The First Annual Everything Break-a-thon, starring The Things I Own

You are in two places at once.

This week's installment: my Alesis M1 Active Mk2 Worst Speakers Ever Don't Ever Buy These Speakers. Here is a picture. If you ever see them, swallow your arsenic tablet immediately:

I purchased these lovely speakers from a town-leaving Berklee student for $200. They were irredeemably terrible even before a few days ago, when the right one started on fire for no reason at all. Now I can't even pawn them off on the next idiot for pennies on the dollar.

I know that Alesis often makes fine gear, and I also know that not all of their monitor speakers spontaneously shoot sparks and smoke when you turn them on. My left speaker, for instance, has been fire-free for the entire time that I have owned it. Still, there is no excuse for these monitors to exist. During the time that I owned them, they performed so miserably that I opted to listen to mixes almost exclusively on a pair of consumer-level Optimus Nova 71 headphones. For those of you who are not familiar with Optimus as a brand - that includes me, since I have no idea where I got these headphones and I cannot find evidence of their existence on the internet - they make headphones that endeavor to minimize damage to your ears by forcing you to take them off after five minutes because they are excruciatingly painful to wear. These are not they, but I have provided a picture of headphones for context:

Can you tell I found a cheap photo editor online?

Here are interesting facts about this song:

1. Drums and mandolin come straight from my Casio DG-10 digital guitar (scroll down to comments and see the discussion re: the strings being made from "unobtanium" - great word!), known to most as the Stupidest Instrument Ever Made. I did a fair amount of stacking for my drum sounds - maybe too much - those digital drum sounds are pretty thick to begin with.

2. That's me rocking back in my chair at the beginning of the song. I have a small space, and I wanted to take some time to try to un-digitize the drums by letting them bounce around the space a bit before I took them back in through my API. Unfortunately I was never able to get out of my own way, so I decided to leave the chair-creak in the song.

3. Those dogs are from a tape for an audio book of 101 Dalmatians. I found the tape when I was helping my dad move out of his place a few months back - it must have been from when my brother was little. I had plans to find a "turn the tape over" sample and plop it down at the end of Superhero in week 26 - you know, as a halfway there sort of thing - but the tape was old and snapped before I could grab the sample. Luckily, I had already committed the dogs to my hard disk. And here we are, older but no wiser.

4. Disney - as Disney had been known to do - pulls some bullshit:

5. It would appear that this song is about making clothes out of humans.

6. Wouldn't it.

The Blogs They Are In So Many Love Near Me

Repeat offender blogs. Both have covered me before and both are coming back for a second helping. Delicious.

I did a cool back-and-forth, to-and-fro piece with Neil from Music Like Dirt. It's a two parter: Enjoy, and enjoy.

Surviving the Golden Age picked up on how fantastically awesome last week's song was.

There. A long post. Are you happy now? Of course not, because it's not Angela's Fucking Ashes. What is it with you people?

Song details: Mixed by Phil Gorey. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

36 PARKING SPOT [091009]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:03:24 PDT

Download 36_Parking_Spot_091009.mp3

Download 36_Parking_Spot_RADIO_091009.mp3

Funny Story

This was supposed to be next week's song, but I guess Nick and I crossed signals.

Therefore I have no body blog post prepared, so you will need to amuse yourself with the ephemera below, or explore other options.

However, this song is so fucking great.

Thank you.

Blog Love is My Fourth Favorite Kind of Love

Can you guess the first three?

Chrome Kids digs.

Music Liberation too.

Richard James

Former Indef keyboardist and current friend-o-mine Richard James is releasing an album on Saturday night. I will be there. Visit.

EMPLOY ME (NT)

Nice prospective subject line for a cover letter email, right? I don't even write cover letters. Just attach the resume BAM BAM BAM.

So far I have applied for the following professional roles:

Educational Content Developer
Cable Access TV Program Manager
Part-Time ESL Teacher
Assistant Producer for Tween-Targeted Online Cooking Webisodes
Records Bureau Clerk
Language Lab Associate
Part-Time Production Assistant
Game Writer
Media Watchdog Intern
Gadget Inspector

I don't mean to belittle the process, or the positions. Many of these positions seem like great fits where I might really be able to get some cool stuff done. As a practical matter, however, I'm not sure my business casual attire even fits me anymore. I have lost a good 15 pounds as a starving-artist-with-a-nagging-neck-thing-going-on.

Links

I bet you're glad this section is back. And I bet you'll be disappointed when I omit it again sometime soon.

Anagram Maker. Father Abraham --> HA HA! FRAME BRAT. Apparently the anagram generator caused my stage name to grow an exclamation mark.

A reasonable, de-coded POV of the war in Afghanistan by Rory Stewart, Professor of the Practice of Human Rights at the K School at Harvard.

My new favorite blog that is not written by Glenn Greenwald. Citizen Media Law Project.

This is less a FAIL and more a thing that happens all the time, everywhere.

Song details: Mixed by Phil Gorey. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

35 HALF A PARABLE [090309]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:13:58 PDT

Soldier on, soldier.

Download 35_Half_a_Parable_090309.mp3

Run like you stole something.

Jesse (Dirge Nowitzki, CFOs, changes for I Know You), recently referred me to a YouTube video. Rather, he suggested that I type some keywords into YouTube's search engine and find something or other. It was rather unremarkable.

There was a video, he sad.

"It's somewhere on YouTube," he added. By which he meant: it's on YouTube.

I have most likely made this very statement many times. My question, however, is this: are there separate "somewheres" on YouTube, or is everything just "on YouTube"? This strikes me as a possible kissing cousin to the player to be named, o.k.a. the player to be named later.

What I mean to say is I lifted the clarinet line from the intertube

From somewhere on YouTube. Dig the stop-motion:

This song does not seem destined for any sort of commercial amazingness, and I think my application of my skills to the sample was mildly instructive, so what the hell, I jacked the sample.

I came upon it while digging for Red Riding Hood samples for last week's song and really liked the pacing of the line and thought that I could make something out of it. I haven't worked with samples much lately - not because I don't believe in the "if they sue me I'll already be rich" business model of sample appropriation, but because uncleared samples almost immediately disqualify my work from being considered for smaller payouts like licensing for commercials and soundtracks, and as always I'm trying to be smart about what I do, and also, hey, I might as well improve on the keyboard while I'm doing this - but this one was a challenge because the audio was highly degraded due to digital distortion. Most likely whoever posted the video didn't leave enough headroom for the audio, so I was stuck with a pretty crappy source sound.

My first move was to get the sample on a decent grid, so I did some choice chopping and time-expansion-contraction to get the tempo close to uniform. Then I started in on the sound. I ended up having to roll off ton of high frequency information using my Krohn-Hite filter. It really helped having a nice piece of tube gear to do that work - I basically use it to add warmth, anyway, so this particular application was no different.

I moved on to making stacks of the sample - I probably ended up bouncing down anywhere from 10 to 12 stereo tracks of my rolled-off version of the sample. I experimented with different reverbs and filter settings to try to push some of the high end back into the sample, added a few delays and pulled a few tracks back a few milliseconds to get some more space, and Viola Swamp, a pretty bang-up job.

This song also marks the debut of live stomps and claps through my API gear and my ASR-10. As I have found, the fake flooring tiles in my studio have a nice high-frequency attack and produce a really cool, non-linear, billowing boom if I set up the compressor right and stomp on the floor hard enough to re-aggravate my shinsplints. Look for these sounds again two weeks from now. I will have already improved my technique.

Re: more singing: I'm figuring this out. It just so happens that I'm figuring out publicly, on the internet, in front of you. There are worse ways to distinguish myself.

Oh, one last thing: In an attempt to stave off poverty and save a few bucks on what I thought was a simple mix, I did this mix myself. Feedback appreciated.

Some Blog Love

Jump the Turnstyle digs on CFOs, just like I knew they would.

No links this week. Start class tomorrow. Need job. These things take precedent.

Song details: Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

34 HEY BABY, YOU LOOK BETTER WITH THE LIGHTS OUT [082709]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:19:15 PDT

You might could count this as the two-thirds mark, and you might could not. It's your decision.

Download 34_Hey_Baby_You_Look_Better_with_the_Lights_Out_082709.mp3

The Plot She So Thick

Last week I eulogized my car.

This week, my job.

Actually, it's something of an advance eulogy. Last week I was informed that my contract would not be extended past September 30. Mark your calendars to make sure that you check out the new unemployment claims for the second week of October. "That's Abraham," you'll say. "Abraham the rap guy. I know someone on the list!" That way I will be able to get you into the parties. They look like this:

On an existential level, I am fine with this. I need to cut the cord (chord? HA!) at some point, and like most office drones I know, I don't necessarily feel that liaising between sales staff and in-house production teams is exactly my calling. I am also grateful that my recent eulogies have been written for an automobile and a form of employment, respectively, and not for living, breathing, human beings.

On a financial level, I am a bit terrified. I know it's starting to sound like a broken record, but if you feel like contributing to the cause, you can always pick something up at my store. I will spend the money even more wisely than before.

Das Song

There is a lot that I love about this song, but there are things that I do not love about it, too. Most significantly, it represents a small and possibly painful step on my journey to get good at non-rap vocals while avoiding singing until I am sure that I can, indeed, carry a tune. You might say we have encountered a "confidence issue" here.

The "grandma's sick" set of lines in the third-verse-rap were meant to cause hilarious misdirection (sick; tick; trick; lap! LOLOLOL [slams head on desk]), but I went for an internal rhyme with "trap" and "lap" so I might have robbed the line of some of its immediacy. Comments?

Please also note that for the purposes of this song, Little Red Riding Hood is of age.

On the bright side, the SK 15 organ is hot. The synths are hot. All of the sounds on the backing tracks for this song are murderously hot. You could pour this beat out of a cauldron down the castle walls and the invading hordes would commend you for having engineered their excruciatingly painful deaths with such skill and precision even as their chain mail fused to their bodies. They would tell your story far and wide, if only they could survive the burns.

Already? Shut Up Or We're Getting Back in the Car

It's a short post this week, mostly because I'm spending time updating my resume and seeing about drumming up business as an independent audio engineer and crying into my Lucky Charms re: where have my twenties gone. I will be back next week, and week after that, until this thing is finished.

Song details: Mixed by Phil Gorey. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

33 RHYMES WITH KHARTOUM [082009]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:24:21 PDT

Look at me, making songs.

Download 33_Rhymes_with_Khartoum_082009.mp3

Download 33_Rhymes_with_Khartoum_RADIO_082009.mp3

Khartoum

A few weeks back I was clicking between Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and coverage of our ongoing fighting everywhere with anyone who looks at us half-sideways or like maybe could they have some of their stuff back when I realized that "cartoon" almost rhymed with "Khartoum." This discovery was roughly contemporary with the making of this beat, and a song was born.

Words that sound the same but are spelled differently are referred to by grammarians as "homophones." Non-grammarians who spend their time memorizing such facts are referred to by the general public as "unemployable."

Speaking of which: the term "jobless recovery" is being bandied with alarming frequency these days. That means that the economy recovers while unemployment does not. Which means that the banks recover and everything else does not. Which does not excite me. Which raises the question of why we accept such vapid and lazy euphemisms in our daily lives. (To) Which I do not know the answer.

Hop on over to father-abraham.com and check out Barney Frank laying the verbal smack downward onto someone who thinks that drawring Hitler moustaches on stuff counts for something.

"Wham!-Rap"

I started a new genre. Beats the piss out of scrunk.

Check the drums, synths, and backing vox for the second verse. I regret that I did not have the prescience to rap about waking me up before you go-go, but there is time for that. There is time for everything.

Wham! aside, I'm starting to really like the idea of live vocal harmonies in my songs (see: He Was Sad; Over Your Shoulder; last week's I Know You; and the descending harmonies in the "rant" section of Pink and Purple). I especially like I don't think it happens nearly enough in hip-hop, and I'm not quite sure why. That's the ever-helpful J. Buckingham Towlson (his 52pickup work, is here, here, here, and here, and also includes Over Your Shoulder, which is linked earlier in this paragraph) on the fugue-like sample that plays in the first verse and in the outro.

So maybe I'm a little bitter this week

It's because I lost my Ford Taurus.

After three years and 31,000 semi-faithful miles, I am returning to the ranks of non-car-owners. I brought my car to my mechanic last week for a scraping sound coming from the rear left wheel and came out with an estimate for $1154 in repairs. Too rich for my or my car's blood. I'm turning in the plates today and selling it for $350 to a guy who says he can do the brakes himself. It served me well.

For those of you who are close followers of the project, you will note that I name-dropped my Taurus only two weeks ago in this song. As of yesterday evening, the answer to "Who got the keys to my Taurus?" will be: John from Haverhill. Feel free to shout that at your audio playback device.

I took a picture:

[Sniffle. Sob.]

But it's okay, I think I got that jump in my step back

That spark in my eye. That snap in my wrist. That fast in my muscles. That whip on my hip.

I don't expect it to last for long, seeing as I'll be fighting the tide of my own ignorance once my EE class starts up, but I finally managed to clear up some mental time and space to try to get ahead again on this project. If all goes well, I'll be officially ahead of schedule by Saturday. I'd like to get a nice cushion going before class starts. Remains to be seen if I can do that. Root for me as if there were nothing left for which to root.

Song details: Background vocals in 1V and outro by J. Buckingham Towlson. Mixed by Phil Gorey. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

32 I KNOW YOU [081309]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:20:42 PDT

New Wave throwback heartache rap. Welcome to the future

[awkward silence]

Download 32_I_Know_You_081309.mp3

On the bright side, I did not find it necessary to swear profusely on this track, so no radio mix.

Also the background vocals in the second and third hooks almost make up for the lead voice.

FutureSex/LoveSounds

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

CrazySexyCool

I missed the note about it being okay to title your album by just jamming words together. It was apparently first mailed out in the early 1990s. It might actually be a rhetorically brilliant album-titling strategy in that it allows people to attach their own meanings to words that resonate strongly with everyone. Casting the wide net.

I will endeavor to find others. My comments field is is always open for those who would like to help. Feel free to make up your own.

In the meantime, I would like to announce that my next full-length album will be titled Sex/Sex:Loud Fun. Note the creative use of punctuation.

Your mp3s are nicer now

Starting only with I Am Not a Sailor I Am the Captain, I have replaced zip file with one that contains mp3s at the ultra-high resolution of 320 kbps. You should get more out of your listening experience. All 52pickup songs from this point on will be available in this new, higher bitrate. I will let you know when I get around to retro-fitting the earlier songs.

h/t to Kap at captainsdead.com for the recommendation to do this, and to the indispensable Nick Z of New Alliance East for pointing me toward the elusive iTunes preference that controls the bitrate of exported files. For those of you that want to know, knowledge is at your disposal on the World Wide Internet.

Alan Wilkis thinks I did a good job remixing his stuffs

I enjoyed making the song, and to be honest I really don't know what's more important: that Alan liked the remix or that I collected $1.4m in royalties in the first week of the release alone. It's probably like half and half. Here's the post.

Then again, you already knew this.

Funky Cold Medina and Wild Thing are the same song (h/t to Brendan). Like I said, you already knew this. Funky Cold Medina and Wild Thing are the Ford/Mercury of songs. Same product, slightly different presentation, transmission goes after 92,000 miles.

Send Me Your Changes and Tweet-Dance With Me Via Mobile Phone Sweepstakes 2k9, sponsored by Venom Brand Energy Drink: Striking, Momentary Paralysis That Begins with Piercing Pain Down Your Left Side

These changes come courtesy of Jesse Andrews of The Young Dads (check out his contributions on Dirge Nowitzki and All My Friends Are CFOs).

I shall contact Jesse and we shall Tweet-Dance together. And that, my friends, will be a revolution.

That's it. See you next week.

Song details: (J. Andrews/A. Kinkopf) Mixed by Phil Gorey. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

31 SIT THERE (GET YOUR HEAD RIGHT) +++ J. BUCKINGHAM TOWLSON [080609]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:14:36 PDT

Tedious song titles with featured artist attributions are dead. Long live tedious song titles with featured artist attributions.

Download 31_Sit_There_080609.mp3

Download 31_Sit_There_RADIO_080609.mp3

The Song

Dig this one. I don't do a lot of stuff at this slow BPM, so it was sure to come out a bit different than the others. The hook doesn't pack a whole lot of meaning, but I thought that the three phrases sounded cool together without rhyming, so I went with it.

I also really like the sounds I got for just about everything. My sessions are getting less and less complicated and more focused around getting powerful performances out of each sound. Where I used to use choruses of synths to get my point across, I'm now using one voice, stacked and filtered, and getting some cool results.

I have been waiting to use those opening 8 lines, starting with "Yo Boris," for about three years now. Glad I finally got around to them, and I think I did well making the openings of the verses roughly parallel to one another.

The machine gun sample hard-panned against the hi-hat 32nd notes sounds dope, and I managed to get that rumbling bass sound by slamming the right combination of low-end keys on my Farfisa while running it through my ASR-10 and my Krohn-Hite filter. I like the interplay between those three parts a lot.

I'm doing it I'm really doing it

Thank you to those who donated and/or purchased my goods and services in my ongoing quest to partly defray my tuition costs for the upcoming fall. I am now irreversibly enrolled in Physics 123 at Harvard Extension School. I am happy that you are able and willing to support me.

Chord changes

Struggling a bit with changes lately. I got a nice response from my recent tweet asking for some changes, so I'll ask here and set what I get, too. Send me your favorite changes. If I make a song out of them, I will call you up on the phone and we'll dance to the song together, on the phone, if that makes you happy, and since social networking is "in," we will tweet about dancing together on the phone, to the song whose changes you supplied to me. It will be an internet phenomenon witness by the tens. We shall call it Send Me Your Changes and Tweet-Dance With Me Via Mobile Phone Sweepstakes 2k9, sponsored by Venom Brand Energy Drink: Piercing Shakiness that Strikes While You Are Trying to Talk to the Police.

Seriously, send me some changes. It has already been fun working with what people sent me.

Who watched Muppet Babies when they were young?

How horrific of a caretaker was Nanny? Did she ever make good on her promises to take the Muppets anywhere? That's why they had to use their imaginations so much, which eventually led to them developing and producing their own television show, so it's not all bad. Also: was that an orphanage? I always felt that the show copped out when it came to defining the actual origins of the Muppets. Wasn't Gonzo supposed to have been from space?

Yes, he was.

Watch a movie called The Last Home Run

This is hands down the best worst movie you have ever seen. It is the story of an old man, who with the help of some proto-asian magic involving a zen garden and a baseball named "the interceptor," becomes young again and plays little league baseball. The following reasons to see it are in no way comprehensive, nor are they in any sort of order:

1) An early scene were the lead character, Jonathan as an old man, addresses the young female protagonist and his soon-to-be-love interest by her name ("Jenny"), carries on a 2 minute conversation, and then asks her what her name is. The old man is not characterized as senile or forgetful; rather, his mental acuity is shown to be sharp. He's just in the home for on account of his heart. It seems as if it might have been the proofreader who forgot.

2) Former Montreal Expos star catcher Gary Carter plays the role of Terrifyingly Unpredictable Angry Father/Coach. He screams at nothing and is verbally abusive to his players. He talks too loud when he's not screaming. After the culminating scene in which young Jonathan leaps to catch a sure home run for the last out of the game, tumbles over the fence, and does not return to the infield to celebrate the team's win, Gary Carter muses that he must have wanted to be alone because he has no parents.

3) The action sequence for nearly every play is as follows: (1) pitcher winds up (2) shot of crowd gasping, sound of bat hitting ball, which for some reason sounds like sound of whip hitting ground (3) stagehand drops ball in front of a camera set on the ground on a grass field (4) someone narrates what base the runner should go to (5) ump signals "safe" or "out." You really have to see it to believe it.

4) As I recall, there are no home runs in the entire movie.

Have you seen this island?

Crazy Japanese man-made island ruins.

Song details: Mixed by Phil Gorey. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA

30 RUMBLE +++ J. BUCKINGHAM TOWLSON [073009]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:18:01 PDT

Sorry for late. This one gets kind of crazy.

Download 30_Rumble_073009.mp3

Download 30_Rumble_RADIO_073009.mp3

Wild little song, with yet another scene-stealing performance from J. Buckingham Towlson (see other contributions here, here, and here) but I'm not going to dwell on it for too long, because I have other things to talk about. All I'm going to say is that I hope that within this song is not my last reference to player-coach Reggie Dunlop, because I'm not sure I did him any justice.

It's Like NPR, but Written, and with CDs Not Tote Bags

Come September, I will be enrolled in an Electrical Engineering crash-course at Harvard Extension School. Why for? I want to be able to fix and mod my own gear. I want to understand music production in more concrete terms than "this knob does X" and "that knob does Y." I want to establish in myself a pattern of lifelong learning and intellectual curiosity. I want to gain the know-how to create a live-performance robot DJ that makes hipsters mess their tight pants before tight pants go out of style. All of this.

So I'm asking for a little bit of help. The class costs a pretty penny, and I plan to take out loans to cover myself. I'd like to pay as much up front as I can. Here's where you come in. If you have a few bucks and you appreciate my stuff, grab a copy (or some copies) of I Am Not a Sailor I Am the Captain, or a Sasquatch Hunter shirt, or the Father Abraham Superdiscography, or whatever else I have for sale at my store (nothing). If you just want to donate, you can do that using the button on the right sidebar, but please be warned that I will hunt you down using your PayPal information and send you CDs/shirts/Superdiscographies anyway.

I appreciate your help, and I promise that I will spend your money on my enrollment fee and not on frivolous items.

Thanks for sitting through that.

Long writing on the blogs.

As you all know, I have been doing okay with the blogs lately. To wit:

Blastercase. Thank you.

Future Rocket Soul not only likes the songs, but reads the posts.

The POP! Stereo says my gospel is good.

So I'm having fun with that part. It's actually kind of fulfilling if I let myself get into the right mindset. I have a system going wherein I find potentially hospitable blogs via hypemachine, email them, twitter-friend them, follow up a few times, and mark down all of my results on aspreadsheet. For the most part, it has been a pretty happy exercise in public relations, and I'm grateful that the world has evolved in such a way that I can achieve what I have achieved, on my own, without having had to wait for someone to subsidize such work on my behalf. And I have made some great friends along the way.

Then I got this little gem a few days back:

hey man, um, not trying to be a prick but usually when someone doesnt answer 3 of your emails, it usually means that theyre not into your stuff.

(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)

Look: I'm past the point of being able to generate any emotional response to rejection. In fact, I actually appreciate it when bloggers get back to me to let me know that they don't dig my stuff or that they don't think it fits in with their music. That means they took a minute to listen, which is all I ask of them. This email isn't even that horribly offensive. It's just sort of mildy off-putting. So I present to you: me, mildly off-put:

Generally speaking, when someone announces that they do not want to be a prick, that usually indicates that they in fact fully intend to be a prick sometime in the very near future. Same goes for assholes, gossips, or buzzkills. They may at times serve a good purpose - a buzzkill, for instance, might announce that they do not wish to kill the buzz but don't you guys think that we should fill the pool before we dive; and a prick might say, hey guys, I don't mean to be a prick, but my job is to figure out where the TARP money is and you seem to be responding to my requests for transparency with intransigence if not outright impunity, so when you get a break could you fucking tell me - but it does nothing to obscure the fact that they are broadcasting their future actions by announcing that they intend to do the exact opposite. More often than not, these people are fully aware that their actions are going to directly contradict what they just said, but aren't over themselves to the degree that they can just do it without wasting our valuable oxygen trying to convince us that while it may very well seem to be, it in fact is not.

I further argue that if you are sincerely not trying to be a prick and something like the above leaves your mouth/inbox/whatever, you are of the subset of people who are pricks without trying, in which case you should switch things around a bit and try not to be a prick. It's a subtle difference, but then again we are all different, like corn flakes.

Now I suffer from no illusion that anyone that I contact regarding my music is obliged to respond to me. Seems to me that a few follow-ups from my end make sense, but then again, some people disagree. So here we are, two Zax.

There they stood.

Foot to foot.

Face to face.

Some links:

Lego Wu-Tang

Juggalos are people, too.

Song details: Mixed by Nick Zampiello and mastered by Rob Gonnella at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.

29 VICE SQUAD [072309]

noreply@blogger.com (Father Abraham) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:38:33 PDT

This one has a police vibe. Not like Sting-police. Like harass-tenured-Harvard-professors-police.

Download 29_Vice_Squad_072309.mp3

Download 29_Vice_Squad_RADIO_072309.mp3

It's me again. Jesse is back to being funny and engaging and a better writer than me somewhere else on the wild wild web. I am back to forcing out a few lines of prose every week, if for nothing else than for the pure fuck of it.

I'm kind of tired these days. More like really tired, all the time. Very tired.

That's why I wanted to take a minute to talk about Venom Brand Energy Drink.

Venom Brand Energy Drink was the only free item being offered at the Bastille Day celebration in Harvard Square two Sundays ago, aside from the musical accompaniment, which was jazz, and was without cost, but was not free jazz. Naturally, Cassandra and I passed the Venom Brand Energy Drink cart multiple times in order to avail ourselves of as much energy as possible, which now sits in my fridge in the form of potential energy (K).

Now, when I was with The Indefinite Article, we somehow managed to score a "sponsorship" with Rockstar Energy Drink. I forget exactly how it worked, but the extent of the sponsorship deal was that the regional Rockstar representative dropped off a bunch of Rockstar bullshit at my drummer's house, including case upon case of Rockstar Energy Drink, which my drummer would always conveniently forget to share with everyone, which is probably for the better, since it is poison. We also got t-shirts, headbands, winter hats, and a bunch of other promotional items (known in the industry as "garbage"), which we would throw to people in the crowd while feeling terrible about ourselves. Once we were almost banned from Harper's Ferry because Ricky was giving away Rockstar gear and Harper's was a Red Bull venue and somehow this mattered to someone. Indie music! Screw corporations!

My point is: there is an energy drink turf-war going on about which you know nothing. And Venom Brand Energy Drink will gain no traction in this turf war, because it is quite possibly the most vile substance on God's Taurine-injected Earth.

All discussion of Venom Brand Energy Drink can begin and end with its slogan: Piercing Energy That Strikes Back. Let's just parse this for a second:

1. What the fuck is Piercing Energy.

2. Who is being Back-Stricken?

They say this shit like it's a fact that you (or anyone) wanted something like this. "When you want to stay razor sharp, with the energy to strike first and leave your mark" they say, going on about the Back-Strikingness of their Black Mamba-flavored, half-carbonated can of motor-oil-colored liquid. Then some other things about Taurine and L-carnitine, all dotted with semi-literate punctuation.

I mean, I get it. It's a snake-themed drink. Snakes pierce when they bite. Their attacks, at least toward humans, do seem somewhat reactionary in nature. This doesn't mean that Piercing Energy That Strikes Back is a good slogan. All it means is that it is somewhat applicable to snakes.

Venom Brand Energy Drink is bottled and distribtued by Dr. Pepper/7-Up, who employ at least one person that found their absurd slogan worthy of a trademark. Imagine an entire boardroom of soda industry big-shots signing off on this bullshit. It would stand to reason that every one of them either (a) thought the slogan made perfect sense, or (b) didn't care and were there for the donuts, and by the way they were promised donuts at this meeting didn't Jeanne send out an email about donuts. I would not trust a group of people that arrived collectively at this decision to pour me a glass of water.

Also it tastes like crap and - perhaps this is its biggest coup of all - delivers no discernible boost in energy. On the plus side, it immediately gave me a sore throat.

Song details: Mixed by Phil Gorey. Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.