Feb282008

What About the Shiny Cars?

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I’m sure the vast majority of you have been through this in this past year or so, today I have the sound “ella” constantly echoing through my head. Sometimes its nice and sometimes its just really annoying. Ella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh. It is happening today because I promised Jen that I would record myself playing an acoustic cover of Rihanna’s Umbrella after she posted an mp3 of herself playing Umbrella on the ukulele.

Jen quoted me the chords for the song and I was utterly shocked that I knew what she was talking about. There’s no reason for me to be shocked because I read these chords off guitar tablature all the time but I think it’s the first time I’ve ever conversed with someone about music like this. I only studied the guitar for about 6 months and even then it wasn’t very serious because my teacher realised all we wanted to do was play silly rock music with lots of power chords.

I practiced a bit and then I watched the music video for Umbrella for the first time. And I felt desperately unsexy. The video is like, “You like these strong vocals, huh? Well check this out, the singer is pure sex too. I hope you feel really inadequate. Jay-Z looks like a self-important man-child next to this lady.” It’s weird how the lyrics are quite safe and describe an almost platonic love but then Rihanna is all writhing naked in silver body paint.

Anyway, I took about an hour to record a rough take this morning. After work, I’ll re-record one without the embarrassing guitar fumbles and strained vocals and it will be posted here in all it’s annoying ella, ella, ella glory.

Update

Here is the track. I absolutely hate how my voice sounds and I kinda regret eating a buttload of pizza prior to recording this. But for better or worse, here it is. At the very least, it will encourage me to post better singing.

You’ll need to visit my website and have Flash player installed to listen.

Jack mangles his umbrella, ella, ella 2 min 30 sec, 2.0 MB

I don’t like singing this song… it feels like a bad cover. I need a song that I can make my own.

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14 comments »

tiff

i cant wait to download this when i get home!
Deutlich

I all sorts of love this idea. And luckily, my guitar teacher knows all I wanna do is play funky old school music chords.. so that’s what he’s teaching me. Heh.
poodlegoose

That’s better than me. The first song I learned how to play was Hanson’s Mmmbop, but that was back in 8th grade, so can you really blame me?

And OMG if that is her playing I totally adore her. Really, really adore her.

Oh, and I cut my nails on my left hand and right thumb, but that was for the violin. I think that might make me kind of a weird looking dork, but I’m ok with that.
Jack

tiff – Err… my singing is not the kind you want to hear more than once.

Deutlich – Woah you’re learning guitar? I wanna find me a guitar teacher too!

Poodlegoose – Yes that’s totally Jen. I know her voice by now. :D You can hear her regular music on her MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/jenpitch Don’t stress, I love singing along to Mmm Bop. The chick in Hanson was totally hot too ;)
Diana

Go jack go! When are we doing karaoke again?
Jack

I’m ready whenever you’re ready! :D Your friends were really fun!
jinius

that is so cool! i’ll have to listen to it when i get home.
poodlegoose

I hate you. I stayed up way too late watching those videos you sent me, and now I want a ukulele. Really bad. It looks like it’ll be easier on my fingers than this manolin is, and I can always use a break from finger torture :)

Your song is fun! I would love to hear more. What kind of software do you use?
Damsel In Digress

JACK.

i had this very same idea – of posting an mp3 of me singing. and, you know, scaring everyone. but you know me. i have no technology knowhow so i wouldn’t even know where and how to start. (do you like my silent plee for helpp?;) )

you sound great, dude! it’s like a cool alternative version or something to the song. maybe it’s the seattle thing but i like the grunge-like sound to it =)

lately, i’ve been thinking of how fun it would be if people posted themselves reading their posts – you know. add some life to the words and what not.

glad you did this!
Jack

poodlegoose – I use a Mac so I use GarageBand to record my stuff. This was actually my first try at recording a separate voice and guitar track.

DAMSEL – I’m totally around if you need help with technical stuff. Just grab me on IM or email. The easiest way to share audio is probably by signing up for an Odeo account. They’ll let you upload stuff and give you code that you can paste into your blog (just like YouTube code).

I think it would be fun for people to post their own readings of blogs! I want to put on the voice of a tortured artiste and bristle about this winter of our discontent, etc.
Ashley

i never liked this song until i heard it played acoustically on the guitar. and kudos to you for posting yourself singing – i could never.
mike

Well done, you made an incredibly unbearable song slightly kinda possibly maybe sort of digestible for my ears. Still don’t like the song but well done :-) Now I wanna hear The Crazy Frog song in acoustic please :-P
Daniel

Nice one Jack :-D
Jen

Wow. You sound like a MANLY MAN when you sing.

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