I am actively working on writing out rhythmic words for a camper trailer production called Blue, the first of three to be done this spring (other two called Globe and Beats). All of the instrumentals were gleamed from stacks of CDs my man Boogie Brown used to send me (and everybody really) called Blue Globe Beats. I don't even know what the beat was originally called in his Blue Globe Beats form, because I gave all the songs new titles for our Prolo project, and this one is called "Country Lounger".
As it gets warm again, I get excited because it means the temperature will be perfect for working in the camper trailer that is my personal studio of madness that sits beside the tool shed behind my house. It is stuffed full of things we take from the house, but the one end is clear, with an open table for me to work at, an impressive sound system hooked up inside that can rock the neighbors into cutting on their floodlights, and the walls and open surfaces are cluttered with various nonsense to visually stimulate me. I actually just strung together five flags with twine to hang up to separate the half of the camper with stuff packed in tightly from the half I still work in. The camper has no heat or air conditioner, so the ideal time of year for working is about to start, when I can crank open a couple of windows, run an extension cord from the front porch of the house 150 feet over to the camper, hook up an RCA jack from the VCR option on the stereo receiver that Ys into a single 1/8" headphone jack for running into my computer. Then I run a $20 microphone into an old Tascam 4-track cassette recorder, output that into another RCA jacks into 1/8" plug that goes into a USB turntable input, so that I can run the USB cable into my laptop. For some reason that works better than running the jack straight into the laptop. I've had ProTools and Ableton Live on the laptop, but have found it easier to just import the MP3 into cheap ass freeware Audacity, lump in a couple vocal tracks over top, pitch shift it to my liking, throw some tweaks to the mix, and hopefully export it all as an MP3 file before Audacity crashes. My problem with Ableton Live and ProTools is it's a very grid-based program, and I've seen firsthand how this can stifle people. I mean, I guess it's helpful if you don't have some innate sense for what you are doing otherwise and can just listen and hear that something is not quite jibing just right. But I prefer to live off the grid, off the program, because my style tends to not follow good rhythmic guidelines anyways. My life is not very rhythmic. Usually I have a bald tire or two, and probably a tie-rod needs replacing, and my alignment is always off a little. This is how my verbal flow goes as well. I think it's just an innate part of who I am, and when I was younger, back in the early '90s, dreaming of being an accepted whiteboy who could rhyme in front of black people and not be scorned, I wished I was more rhythmic and clean and could wear embroidered hats that matched my flannel shirt and look good doing so. But that's not who I am. I am a country lounger. I make work what I have at my disposal, and I make it work well. You would not go out of your way to recreate my ensemble, in regards to clothing styles or recording systems, but I make it work, in my own special way. And I come off better in embracing what I am and letting that flow how it supposed to flow, rather than trying to force myself into step with a rhythm I will fumble fast enough.
STEAL "Country Lounger (instrumental)"
NEXT MONTH: More things and more babble and more music that you will hopefully enjoy though I guess this is ultimately more about nothing than anything in particular!
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