Lake Michigan, Rogue Wave

This post is a direct result of poor planning on my part. I brought up a guitar stand about a month ago, so my guitar now sits directly next to where I do most of my studying... I realized it's actually a lot harder to study with a guitar sitting right next to you than I thought. Though, not studying for finals isn't always necessarily a bad thing-

This entry is a video of me playing another old (not quite as old as "For Your Love", but not exactly cutting edge) favorite song of mine; "Lake Michigan" by Rogue Wave. Rogue Wave is an indie-rock band based out of Oakland, California and started in 2002. This band seems to be just beginning to pick up steam, and has a new album scheduled to come out in 2010.

If you've never heard the song, there's a really good live version from their set on The Craig Ferguson show, which you can find here.

You should also check out some of their other music, they've got some really good stuff.

...For real. Check em out.

For Your Love, The Yardbirds

This week I decided to go to a little bit retro when I stumbled upon a really, really old song. "For Your Love" by The Yardbirds was a hit in both the UK in America- in 1965. This band has more or less fallen through the cracks today, however I think they played a pretty huge role in the development of "rock n' roll". This band gave a start to both Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin) and Eric Clapton (if you don't know who he is you probably don't care about this post), who both played in bands that shaped the sound of modern Rock.

Even though this song was old when my mom was growing up, its' incredibly catchy melody draws me in every time I hear it. There's a live version that you can find on YouTube, and I love how well the video shows the era that this song is from.

I tried to make this recording sound a little bit older by using different methods of compression, and different filters but ultimately I just ended up using the original recording. Luckily my computer mic isn't very good, so it sounds kind of retro to begin with.

Let me know what you think!

John Butler Trio: New Album Drops Dec. 4th

So naturally with the first snowfall of the year this week, I'm sick once again....

I'm going to have to postpone the recording of this week's song until next week, but I promise next week I'll have it up. So instead of recording a song this week, I'm going to tell you guys about one of my favorite acoustic bands that you should definitely check out.

The John Butler Trio is an acoustic trio from Australia, with an upbeat acoustic-rock feel. As lame as that sounds, trust me it's not. John has to be one of the most impressive acoustic guitarists that I've ever heard or seen, and I have yet to hear anyone with a style similar to his. He uses the guitar in a completely different way than I could ever think to- from his unique plucking styles to using his guitar as a drum.

Yesterday their latest album April Uprising was released, as well as it's first single "One Way Road". It sounds like classic John Butler Trio, and I highly suggest taking a minute to listen to it; if you go to the bands website it's featured on their home page.

Upon first listen this album sounds like it will be just as good if not better than their older albums, which is pretty hard to match. I suggest that everyone listens through the album at least once just to get a feel for this hard-hitting acoustic trio.

Unfortunately there are currently no American tour-dates, so just keep an eye out so you can see 'em when they come around!

P.S. You should also check out their last album, Grand National- it was more or less the soundtrack to my summer and I'd be willing to bet that you'll love it.

Soul To Squeeze, Red Hot Chili Peppers

This week we've got another Chili Peppers' song, one of their bigger hits, "Soul to Squeeze". It was written during the creation of the album Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik though was released separately. It had some serious commercial success, and reached 22 on Billboard's top 100.

The song can be found here, courtesy of YouTube.

Keep a look out, next week's song is going to be a request from a reader- you never know, it could be yours!

Let me know what you think

I'll Make a Man Out of You

This week's song was an idea that David Daniels came up with, and I think you're all going to like the final product. The song "I'll Make a Man Out of You" is the memorable track from the 1998 Disney film Mulan, a movie about a Chinese girl who poses as a man in order to go fight for the sake of her village.The song comes on during a montage where villagers were being trained for battle, which you can hear in the lyrics. The song was composed by Matthew Wilder, and the voice is none other than Donny Osmond.

The original version of this song can be found here.

Let's be honest, everyone saw this movie as a kid and loves/still remembers most of the lyrics to this song even today. Anyone who says anything otherwise is lying to themselves and needs to seriously rethink their life choices; sorry, but it's true. For as long as I can remember I've been singing along to this song, and I hope you guys end up singing along to this weeks post.

I have to give it up for David, as he did most of the work for this weeks post. Without your vocals this song wouldn't be half as great as it is, thanks again!

Sit back, hit play and remember how you used to jam out to this song when you were 8.

Evil, Interpol

This weeks featured song is from another New York Indie band, Interpol. Their song "Evil" comes off of their 2004 album Antics reaching 24 on the U.S. charts and 18 in the U.K. Their distinctive sound has earned them a special place in the world of Indie Rock, and their 2005 album Our Love to Admire has enforced with certainty that they're a musical force to be reckoned with.

If you haven't heard it, one my personal favorite versions is played live on the show "Later with Jools Holland" and can be found here.

This weeks recording does not feature any guest musicians, though next week David Daniels will be making a re-appearance for a cover he thought of doing. I assure you it will be excellent. And may actually make you "lol", "LYAO" and or "ROFL"... No promises though.

Some of the lyrics were improvised, so die-hard Interpol fanatics be warned; my memory isn't the greatest. I think you guys will like this song though, I was surprised with how my vocals sounded compared to that of Paul Banks (Interpol's vocalist).

So without further ado, "Evil" by Interpol.

Feel Good Inc., Gorillaz

This week's song is a request from my friend Brad Nash, by the famous British animated band Gorillaz. As far as I'm concerned Gorillaz is musical mastermind Damon Albarn (From Blur, The Good The Bad and The Queen)'s best project yet.

Their song "Feel Good Inc." was one the most successful singles off of their "Demon Days" album, reaching number 14 on Billboard's top 100. This song is instantly recognizable as Gorillaz, and has an incredibly catchy chorus so I had to cover it.

If you've never heard it: A) WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! and B) Check it out here!

This song sounds a lot better with two people, however my friends were all busy today so I had to make do. I hope you all enjoy it either way!

Little Wing, Jimi Hendrix

This week's song is an acoustic/instrumental version of "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix. No vocals this week, sorry. This is a song that I've always loved, and I first played it in 7th grade for a talent show along with my good friend, David Gross. I'd like to dedicate this post to him, happy travels Dave.

This song is one of those songs that I needed to learn when I started playing guitar, and to this day I still remember most of it. Most of the song is soloing though, and since this week's recording just features me, it gets cut a bit short. It's alright though, I think what I ended up with sounds almost halfway decent. If you've never heard the song, you can find it here. If you've never heard of Jimi Hendrix, I seriously suggest you look him up and spend some time familiarizing yourself with this guitar legend.

I hope you guys enjoy this weeks entry, next week's will be one of the requested songs so keep an eye out; it could be a song you requested.

Pursuit of Happiness, Kid Cudi

This week's song comes off of Kid Cudi's second studio album, "Man on the Moon: The End of Day" featuring cameos from both MGMT and Ratatat. With the enormous popularity of his single "Day 'N' Nite", Cudi has gone from unknown to household name in just a few short years.

If you've never heard any Kid Cudi, you can find this week's song here thanks to YouTube.

Publicly promoting the use of marijuana and recently featured in High Times magazine, this rap artist has become somewhat of a modern day Willie Nelson. His new song and smoking anthem "Pursuit of Happiness" seems to be an ode to his nightly pursuit of getting... happy.

This week's recording features both the guitar playing and vocals of my good friend David Daniels, without whom I could not have gotten this song done. Take a minute to check out his site, it's definitely worth your time.

-Look out for next weeks song.

Nostalgia, Courtesy of MySpace.

-This picture is from a show I played roughly 3 years ago, and God is it embarrassing. Yes, that's me in the middle.(Photo credits to Victoria Schwandt)

So last week I was a little bit sick, and it noticeably affected my performance. This week, I'm even sicker and so I wont be posting a new recording. I'll try and make up for it next week, I promise. But this week's blog post is just going to talk about my music MySpace page. I don't update it too much anymore, but it's definitely worth a look.

I started that page in 2006, and to be honest I haven't looked at the thing more than once or twice in the past year. Most of the music from that page is either from 2006 or earlier. It's really interesting to look back and see the things you've recorded years ago, and that's actually the main reason I started the page. One night I was looking through my files, and found a good 10 or 20 songs that were just me messing around and recording whatever I played. I began sifting through and pulled out a couple I thought were decent, and then posted them. From then I just sort of started posting whatever it was that I was doing at the time, and eventually grew away from it. However, the website still stands as a monument to what I was up to over 3 years ago.

The latest track posted, "Umami" I would consider one of the best ones up there. It's the only one featuring electronic instrumentation, and like the other songs I made it by myself, using up to 6 or 7 track layers per song. The beat in the background is a clip from a 20 minute keyboard session. I had actually recorded that session 2 years prior, but saved it in the wrong folder. I ran across it one day looking for something else, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. I cut it out, looped it 10 or 20 times and then started recording over it. From that point I just recorded tracks over that until I felt I had achieved a full enough sound.

It's really great to be able to go back and look at something concrete out of your history, because once you start to think about a certain time memories flood back and you kind of forget about the present for a minute. It's a lot like watching a home video, where you can't believe that that's actually you learning to ride a bike, but you know it is. It conjures up memories that are stronger than the video, and takes you somewhere else. So listen to some of my memories and take some time to think back to what you were doing, what you were interested in and most importantly what you were like 3 years ago.

Check out the site, leave me some feedback and let me know what you think!

By The Way, The Red Hot Chili Peppers

(I highly suggest you scroll down and start the video before you read the whole article!)

This week's selection "By The Way" off of The Red Hot Chili Pepper's 2002 album is a personal favorite song of mine, and I am actually rather surprised with how well the recording turned out. Despite feeling a little under the weather, I'd like to think the vocal track isn't half bad.

I assume most of you know who The Red Hot Chili Peppers are, but for those of you who don't they're a funk-turned-rock band out of California (although Anthony is originally from Grand Rapids, MI). They've become one of the largest and most world renowned acts out of America, and to be honest if you haven't heard of them you must have been under a rock for the past 20 years. If you haven't heard "By The Way", check it out here.

I'm going to take a minute to shamelessly plug Anthony Keidis(the lead singer of RHCP)'s autobiography Scar Tissue. This man has lead one hell of a life and really gives you a new understanding of both the music and lyrics of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I've been completely enthralled in this book all week and its probably the main reason for this weeks song choice. If you've got some money burning a hole in your pocket, or a even library card, check this book out; it's definitely worth the read.

Now that I've sung this book's praises, I can blame it for almost making me miss this week's post. To be honest I didn't think this song would come together as well as it did, and with most of my time devoted to this book I had little time to rewrite this song. However with motivation in the form of 6 or 7 cups of coffee, I buckled down, got to work and produced a respectable piece of work. Let me tell you, caffeine is a hell of a drug; I produced this song in just 3 takes, which for a perfectionist like me me is quite impressive.

I hope you all enjoy my take on "By The Way", I can pretty confidently say that it's my best piece I've posted thus far. Let me know what you think!

Seven Nation Army, The White Stripes

The featured song this week is "Seven Nation Army", the arena anthem by Detroit-based duo The White Stripes. The song comes from their 2003 album Elephant, which carried them to stardom and brought them national fame. The song is characterized by a driving kick drum and Jack White's signature highly distorted guitar, making it a great candidate for this project; mostly because my version will feature neither of those.

I produced this weeks song on my own, and has kind of an odd story behind it. The chord progression I play in the verse of this song was from something I wrote earlier this week, for a duet with my violinist friend. It was written for a spur of the moment jam session, however it happened to fit pretty perfectly with the lyrics from this song, and so from that an idea was born.

I know the recording still isn't the greatest quality, but hang in there; I should have a new microphone next weekend to record with. I think I like this week's song a little more than my last entry, just because compositionally this one is a lot further from the original song. I wrote the verse in a 3/4 time signature to give it a waltz-like kind of feel, and it turned out pretty interesting.

So here's to Detroit, and to everyone connected to it in any way, shape or form. Contrary to popular belief, the motor city's still kicking, and so is it's music scene.

Kids, MGMT

(Photo Credit goes to Filter Magazine)

So this week's song, also the VERY FIRST SONG POST EVER is "Kids" by indie rockers MGMT from Brooklyn, New York. This duo has been getting more media coverage than you can shake a stick at in the past two years, not to mention their music has been all over the charts, all over the world. "Kids" has recently been making it's way into remixes left and right, popping up in the sets of the likes of DJ Busy P, DJ Mog and MSTRKRFT. Most of MGMT's songs are based solely off of electronic instruments, and "Kids" is no exception; naturally, it was perfect for this project.

First of all, I'd like to thank my friend David Daniels for contributing to this project. He'll be showing up quite a bit here as a guest musician, and is featured on this week's recording. Check out some of his solo stuff at his website.

Secondly, I have to apologize in advance for the sound quality of the recording. I don't have much gear up in East Lansing, so until I can move some of it up here (hopefully really, really soon) I'll be recording under sub-par conditions. For you Bose-headphones having, uptight fidelity snobs out there: SORRY. If you want to help fund new equipment, send all donations to B225 Emmons Hall, Harrison Avenue, East Lansing MI.

If you aren't familiar with this week's song, check it out here. I know it's got a long intro, just skip forward until about 1:10 and you'll be good to go.

A little bit about this week's piece:

Due to time constraints, this was recorded in one track in a live setting. We simplified the song as much as possible to try something a little bit different and less busy than the original. I also tried to incorporate more open-sounding chords to give it a new, more earthy feeling. I think we accomplished most of the stuff I was shooting for with this song, but feel free to leave some feedback and let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Start Submitting!

Alright, so seeing as in this is the first post of the series, this is more of an introduction to the idea and (I'm sorry, I'm sorry!) will not be featuring a song.

...So what's this thing all about?

This blog is the documentation of a musical project, in which yours truly along with a number of guest musicians will re-write songs (chosen by YOU!) to be played on acoustic instruments. Once the song chosen for that week has been written and recorded, it will be posted here along with a link to the original song in case you aren't familiar with it. The song will be accompanied by a description of the musical process leading up to the finished product, pictures of the practice sessions and a little bit about the original artist.

Now the idea here is to find songs that will be interesting to hear turned acoustic. Song submissions can be from any genre, but try to pick something a little more unconventional than country or soft-rock. There are already about 10,000 versions of kids in their parents basement playing "Semi-Charmed Kind of Life" on the Internet, and we really don't need to contribute to that number.

So give me a challenge! Pick something interesting or odd, and I'll do my best to do the original piece some justice.

e-mail all song submissions to beegrenier@yahoo.com - make sure to include both song title and artist.