Thursday Links and "It's Odds and Ends" And Something Completely Different!
Even more self promotion among "other foolish things..."
(Ed. Not that “foolish” - those are Brian Fallon lyrics in quotes in the subtitle - go find and listen to the song - it's great!)
Shameless Self Promotion Section:
My song “Long Road Back” (click on link for streaming options) is out. I’ll be writing more about the song, it’s inception, writing it, the pretty simple chord progressions, the recording process the guitarist and drummer, and finally mastering it a studio and releasing it in The Regular Friday Posts over the next few weeks.
(Ed. Also new subscribers!! Mika The Cat welcomes and thanks you all in tomorrow’s post!)
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Michael Acoustic
Today’s John Prine quote:
“I think the more the listener can contribute to the song, the better; the more they become part of the song, and they fill in the blanks. Rather than tell them everything, you save your details for things that exist. Like what color the ashtray is. How far away the doorway was. So when you’re talking about intangible things like emotions, the listener can fill in the blanks and you just draw the foundation.”
Some Links for today:
This one I can only recommend if you have a subscription to American Songwriter because it’s behind their paywall. But Tom Waits is one of my favorite songwriter/performer/actors. There is a lot of good stuff at AS, but there’s a price of admission. Choose wisely….
If there is one article I could have read and kept on a browser to refer to often when I was in the process of releasing my song, the following “Black Box Royalties” article is it. I’ve spent a LOT of time on various websites, including joining the MLC, and several others over the past couple of weeks - and I have more to complete - most require a lot of the same information. I keep a separate note on my phone (and print it out every time I update it) with things like UPC codes, ISRC (International Standard Recording Code), ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code), my US Copyright registration numbers, my PRO (Performing Rights Organization, in my case ASCAP), the IPI numbers (Interested Party Information - detailed in the second link) for my composer rights and my publishing rights via my LLC, and other stuff. Every one of those numbers or references is pretty critical to receiving the royalties you’re due. I’ll be writing more about this in Regular Friday Posts, but this is a good primer and a good collection of information to get started with:
Ed. Yes, you seriously need to read this next article whether you’re a musician, singer/songwriter, or otherwise creative person of any type or genre - it’s perhaps more philosophical than pragmatic in tone, but all the more valuable for that:
(Ed. It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…)
Despite the title this is for every songwriter, with a humorous story bonus - with the thousands of songs released every week now, and the practice by AM/FM radio back in the day of not even taking a tremendous number of albums/singles out of the jacket for play, it’s not surprising in the least:
This seems like it should be simple enough, but a metronome, and now perhaps the “click” setting in a Digital Audio Workstation like Logic Pro, is really important to arrangement timing - a topic we’ll explore further in Regular Friday Posts to come.
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.
It’s Odds And Ends!
Today’s underrated or obscure artist:
The Lowest of the Low
The Lowest of the Low performing in 2018.
Background information OriginToronto, Ontario, Canada GenresAlternative rock Years active1991–1994, 2000–2007, 2010–present
The Lowest of the Low is a Canadian alternative rock group formed in 1991 from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[1] They were one of the most influential bands on the Canadian alternative music scene in the early 1990s, garnering widespread critical acclaim and radio play. Their most successful album, Shakespeare My Butt, was later named one of the ten greatest albums in Canadian music history in three successive reader polls by the music magazine Chart,[2] as well as being ranked as the 84th greatest Canadian album of all time in Bob Mersereau's book The Top 100 Canadian Albums.[3
Credit: Wikipedia Link: The Lowest Of The Low
(Ed. I think the “Damn, Damn The Circumstance” background vocal lyric neatly sums up every lovesick guy, ever…. And blindfolds instead of the usual “sunglasses while looking in different directions” band photo makes me laugh…)
Regular post tomorrow!
Cheers, and keep playing!
Michael Acoustic
Thank you very much for your mention and very kind words, Michael. We take them as an extra encouragement to continue this work...