The Famous Thursday Post! (Which Is Apparently Too Graphics Heavy, So Moving Some Stuff To Tomorrow's Post)
An "excursion [ ik-skur-zhuhn, -shuhn ]" Credit: Dictionary.com
Welcome to The Famous Thursday Post!
Our focus on Thursdays is on songwriting, recording, production and commercial release. So…
“An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other (typically work-related) purposes” Credit: Wikipedia
Today, I’d like to lead an excursion into some odd places. Might get a little opinionated, fair warning. Come along for the ride!
One place to start on our jaunt is rap/hip-hop. I admit it’s not my genre to write, record or perform in. So? I listen far more widely than the genre I write in, and I think, though your mileage may vary, that’s a really important thing. As much as I only occasionally listen to hip-hop, I also avoid at all costs country/western singers who (IMHO) lamely try to rap some portion of a country/Americana/folk song:
Can you say “Chimera”? “chi·mae·ra [ ki-meer-uh] noun,plural chi·me·ras.
a horrible or unreal creature of the imagination; a vain or idle fancy”
Credit: Dictionary.com
Did I mention there may be some opinions expressed here?
Anyway, my admittedly limited excursion into the genre began, but did not end, here:
Yeah, it’s explicit… And yeah, I first heard it playing “Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” with my kid:
"'Till I Collapse" is a song by American rapper Eminem featuring fellow American rapper and singer Nate Dogg, released from his fourth studio album The Eminem Show (2002). Despite never being released as a single, the song has managed to chart numerous times worldwide and is the most streamed non-single of all time on Spotify as of June 2022.[1]
In 2009, it was used in an advertisement for the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It raised digital download sales of the song worldwide considerably,[5] but in Britain the song sold so many copies after the ad aired that it re-charted that week (November 21, 2009) at number 73, a new peak.” Credit: Wikipedia Link: 'Till I Collapse
Why am I talking about this? Please take a moment to check out the “Other Voices” section below for a review of a the television show “Atlanta”, you’ll see.
Moving on:
Fellow Substack writer Marc Carrasco, who authors the fabulous “Reflect and Relax Cafe” posed an interesting query about a sound heard in several songs that he (nor I) can identify precisely. See our discussion below in “Other Voices Too” and if you know what it is, let us know in the comments, PLEASE!!!
Disclaimer: This Substack is free, always will be, and I receive no compensation or other benefit (except the unsolicited, occasional, and much appreciated shoutout from readers and other Substackers!) from any of the people or companies I link to or write about. Note some images and other material may be copyrighted by the original author or composer and appear here under the “Fair Use” doctrine. Link: Fair Use. Note: I do not use any form of “Artificial Intelligence” in writing Michael Acoustic. It is possible that some external sources that I link to or quote do use or contain AI generated material.
Michael Acoustic
Today’s musician’s quote: (I’m sorta running out of John Prine quotes, so I’m interspersing now with Brian Wilson quotes….)
“I have stage fright every single concert I’ve ever done. I have at least four or five minutes of it. It’s absolute living hell.” - Brian Wilson
Some “Biz” Links for today: (More in The Regular Friday Post, tomorrow! Sorry!)
From Reverb:
Other Voices:
Check out Mr. Adefope’s Substack, “Paperweight” for lots of cool stuff. The one I linked below is really cool for being an outside looking in view of “the Biz”, or at least one aspect of it.
Other Voices Too:
(Ed. The second link is to a conversation Marc Carrasco (Reflect and Relax Cafe) and I had about a curious sound we heard in a couple of songs that we can’t precisely identify. Let us know if you know! Thanks!)
Some memes and stuff:
You can open each image in the gallery separately in a new window by shift-clicking on it, though it may work differently on different devices - they may appear as a gallery or top to bottom.
Some stuff that made me laugh, that sorta “room looking” graphic is actually a diagram suggesting “a way, but not the way” to add acoustic treatment to you studio, and the rest are stuff we may be talking about in the Regular Friday Posts (Do not be afraid!)
Shameless Self Promotion Section:
My song is out! “Long Road Back” (click on link for streaming options)
Odds and Ends: Tomorrow!
Cheers, and keep playing!
Michael Acoustic
“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”
Thanks for the referrals, Michael!