@dave: I would come see you play, alas it is a bit far to travel from the UK. Also I have to say nice website, looked at the source and it was beautiful. It really does annoy me when bands websites is just one flash box that uses the entirety of my poor processor and kills my computer so I can't even close the window and run. Your band has a strange format as you don't play all together all the time, but I suppose being 12 strong makes playing together hard. Anyway I shall bookmark the page and see how long it lasts.
One of our singers is going to grad school at Sheffield so I suppose you could rock out with her while she's there. 1/12 of the band is still better than none.
This is very true, there is a chance I could be going to stanford september next year if i get in there and not where I want to go here. So who knows what the future holds, might be rocking out with you dudes at some stage. Might be able to actually play guitar at this distant point in future, that will be fun.
@Borba: I finally got to listen to your DSJD cover. Woo-hoo! You got skillz, bro! You mentioned elsewhere that you've listened to a lot of Andrew Lloyd Webber in the past, and to me, the hook sounds very similar to "Jellicle Cats." :-)
Thanks for the encouragement, everybody. You'll live to regret it. If I combine Dave and Colleen's critiques, I am a skilled beast. Is that better or worse than a phat monstre? [ETA: I do intend recording a "final" version of that arrangement once I can do it without too many obvious fluffs.]
@surfercat: I have been playing pretty much all of my life - 31 out of 35 years. Things just seem so much easier when you pick them up at an early age, don't they? (says the father who doesn't know how to go about teaching things to his son)
@Colleenky: Funny you should mention Cats - that's actually a show I know very little of, but I'll believe you, since the arrangement uses pretty generic patterns plucked (consciously or not) from various styles. [anecdote: In the single instance where I performed professionally since 2004, I worked with a bassist who had played the West End production of Cats for 18 (EIGHTEEN!) years. He was happy about getting a redundancy package when the show closed, but looked forward to finishing his days Cats-free.]
Borba: I'm definitely looking forward eagerly to your next long weekend! Any chance of a videorecording of your performance? Also, any chance "Repent Your Brains" goes up on your MySpace, now you've got one?
Making music, no problem. Recording music, no big problem. Videos? Ugh, I've been a bit scared of that for the simple reason that pianists tend to look silly on YouTube (no offense meant to those who have actually done it!) "Here are my hands, and here are my hairy legs" is a favorite static pose. In that regard I envy guitarists, whether singing or not, since head+guitar shots make reasonable visuals without too much hassle. Damn, I should have thought twice before considering MySpace as a place to store music for sharing - I can't see myself using it properly!
Re: RE... I kind of feel that that song, especially with vocal, belongs squarely in the Mandelbrot Set project. Having said that, I have been tinkering with a proper (properly strange) solo piano version. If I had the opportunity to do it with vocal and bass+drums, I'd go for the lounge bossa version, "Re: Jobim". The verse is easy, but the chorus requires very sensitive crooning to get it right ;-)
Hey Paul, thanks. I think I did mention that your burst of YouTube activity was probably what kickstarted me at all; the subtext was something like "Damn it, he can't be the only pianist doing JoCo!" I certainly wasn't aiming to go for the same songs you've done, but then again, I wouldn't have thought of DSJD if it wasn't for your performance. By the way, the "hands and legs" description of YouTube pianists wasn't aimed at you ;-)
I'd hate to beat a dead thread...but I've just uploaded a "real", recorded version of my Still Alive (Minor-key) cover, which can be downloaded here: Still Alive
I took this opportunity to add more to it than just piano...hopefully it doesn't suck.
Encubed, his Still Alive cover is what brought our attention to his covers. You need to check out his fast flying fingers do other JoCo hits, such as Brand New Sucker and Soterios Johnson.
I'd love to try and do some covers, the only thing is I'd also like to do things a bit differently.
I'm still trying to work through writing an English to America over there, but currently only have a couple of lines that I'm very happy with. There are also several songs (i.e. the more popular ones in particular) that I can play on the flute, although I'm not too sure how that would sound to other people.
@Gingerlink: Do you think that you can get the cover/spoof done with a 4 month deadline (October deadline)? You might be interested to see what Angelastic threw together to do a Swiss to American one. Or you may not want to read it as it may close your mind a bit having seen someone else's take on it. I would love to hear another well done retaliation, I would write my own but my lyrics skill is a bit bad.
The chorus is the most developed, most of the verses I've come up with don't seem to work so well though.
I've seen that one and a couple of other variations (was just reading the canadian one). There are several good ideas in both, but there are always some parts (which is the case with a lot of parodies) that seem a little grating. I basically chucked a load of ideas/stereotypes down then tried to piece together what I can. Still working on it though...
I do plan to try and get it done before October, but it's trying to get the ideas down that I'm happy with.
fie on you, mr sahner.... now whenever i try to hum or sing still alive to myself, i keep flipping back and forth between your version and mr coulton's. it's very catchy and well-executed. (the fieing is meant as a joke. bravo, sir.)
Very nice Encubed, and everyone else who I haven;t said well done to. I am very jealous of all you guys. I especially liked the the go home and dream of pie line, very good. Obviously my suggestions/thoughts on the lyrics weren't good enough to get a mention, I am hurt. (I am joking of course, nothing came of what I said really. I had no real role in the making of that song and thus deserve none of the credit) One small thing that annoyed me was the speed the boxes came and went, I am a slow reader anc couldn't manage to read all of the text. But all in all very good.
BenS, I thought I had thanked everyone who posted in the thread! At least that was my goal. I'm so sorry if I somehow missed you! Everyone contributed in some way or another and I wanted to thank them all.
As for Canada day, we have fireworks and stuff. Ottawa is apparently a good place to be. I just spent some time with family and enjoyed an extra day off.
Haha, as I said in my post Encubed it is quite alright it was your brain child really. I am just happy for this sort of thing to exist so I can enjoy the magic, just by making the video you paid me back for anything I said.
This cover is strange but interesting; it's about 3/4 punk and 1/4 hip hop. It's by a group called The Grammar Club about which I know absolutely nothing.
The Grammar Club is a nontraditional hip-hop/rock band because its members each live in different parts of North America and have, by and large, never met.
By swapping unfinished segments of songssomething we digital recording artists refer to as project filesThe Grammar Club is able to collaborate via the Internet, each member contributing his own elements to a given piece.
In addition to being a nontraditional hip-hop/rock band, The Grammar Club is, in a small way, some humble semblance of a super group, as all five of its members have solo "careers" and fans of their own, mostly in the virtual circles of those enthusiastic about the propagation of an alternative hip-hop sub-genre christened by the bands friend and adoptive benefactoradoptive meaning we hereby, in the aforementioned capacity, adopt him, consent notwithstandingMC Frontalot as Nerdcore.
TWO JoCo connections -- PAXman MC Frontalot and this group's manner of recording, which sounds very much like Mandelbrot Set.
Last week, I recorded a German version of Code Monkey. I'm still not sure what to make of it. But I figured that maybe some of you are interested in hearing this somewhat exotic version despite its various shortcomings.
I only have a condensator mic that's great for vocals and guitars but fails to capture the drum sound adequately. (Note: I know nothing about recording engineering.)
German requires more syllables than English. I had to conjugate the verbs; otherwise there would have been even more syllables and no native speaker (who's ignorant of the original) would have understood anything. For artistic reasons, I decided to translate "code monkey like you" as a comparison, and not as a statement of affection. Also, I made the whole story more about a guy analyzing data, and not so much a software designer.
There are no electric guitars. I tried to keep a safe distance to the original version and therefore refrained from using the original drum track. (Otherwise I might have simply used the karaoke version, but then my voice would have sounded even crappier, i.e., higher.)
I'm not really sure what to make of it - leave it as it is? Bury it and pretend nothing ever happened? Revise the recording once I'm better in shape? Add electric guitars? Find someone who can actually sing? Present it as-is without any warranty?
Well, here it is; as-is without any warranty (under a creative commons license). Maybe I'll take it offline in a couple of weeks and/or rerecord it. Don't know yet - and I've got science to do now, so please excuse me.
Jutze
PS: Sorry for not posting more, but my most recent excuse is an acute case of speechlessness caused by Bry and jinx's Talk(s) with JoCo, which is nothing short of amazing.
Great, thanks... I like how the German Computer Monkey is slightly different than our familiar American one.... his boring manager is named Joe, and he likes pizza and tap water (?) instead of fritos and Mountain Dew.
What would the lyric be if you translated "code monkey like you" as a statement of affection?
Rechenaffe mag dich - but that's weird to sing when it goes over several bars and doesn't sound affectionate at all. So I choose something that has the same vowel/sound as the original. And yes, tap water and pizza, because I wanted to inject something autobiographical (instead of promoting some big brands).
Rechenaffe mag dich - but that's weird to sing when it goes over several bars and doesn't sound affectionate at all.
That's okay.... it occurs to me that "code monkey like you" works just fine as a comparison, and not as a statement of affection (in either the English or German version).
If any of you were inclined to believe anything Jutze said about his own musical talents, let me remind you again that he's responsible for this cover of Not About You. (Thanks, by the way, for your kind words about the interview.)
This is so cool! I'm sending it to all the German speakers I know (I have been trying to get them onto JoCo.) And I'm going to go through the lyrics word-by-word until I understand them. (My German comes from a book called 'German in 3 Months' and random phrases from friends.)
We need a band of fake multilingual JoCos to tour Europe giving concerts. So far it's Jutze and Jeremsoft.
"Take a point called Z in the complex plane and let Zed-1 be Zed-squared plus C! And Zed-2 is Zed-1 squared plus C! And Zed-3 is Zed-2 squared plus C! and so on...."
Comments
@Borba: Whoa! You are a beast. What an incredible arrangement.
@Everyone else...here's another cover of me doing Re Your Brains and dying mostly due to lack of sleep.
@surfercat: I have been playing pretty much all of my life - 31 out of 35 years. Things just seem so much easier when you pick them up at an early age, don't they? (says the father who doesn't know how to go about teaching things to his son)
@Colleenky: Funny you should mention Cats - that's actually a show I know very little of, but I'll believe you, since the arrangement uses pretty generic patterns plucked (consciously or not) from various styles. [anecdote: In the single instance where I performed professionally since 2004, I worked with a bassist who had played the West End production of Cats for 18 (EIGHTEEN!) years. He was happy about getting a redundancy package when the show closed, but looked forward to finishing his days Cats-free.]
Re: RE... I kind of feel that that song, especially with vocal, belongs squarely in the Mandelbrot Set project. Having said that, I have been tinkering with a proper (properly strange) solo piano version. If I had the opportunity to do it with vocal and bass+drums, I'd go for the lounge bossa version, "Re: Jobim". The verse is easy, but the chorus requires very sensitive crooning to get it right ;-)
That's such an amazing cover....very fluid, very unique, very fun to listen to.
Still Alive
I took this opportunity to add more to it than just piano...hopefully it doesn't suck.
I'm still trying to work through writing an English to America over there, but currently only have a couple of lines that I'm very happy with. There are also several songs (i.e. the more popular ones in particular) that I can play on the flute, although I'm not too sure how that would sound to other people.
I've seen that one and a couple of other variations (was just reading the canadian one). There are several good ideas in both, but there are always some parts (which is the case with a lot of parodies) that seem a little grating. I basically chucked a load of ideas/stereotypes down then tried to piece together what I can. Still working on it though...
I do plan to try and get it done before October, but it's trying to get the ideas down that I'm happy with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBS2DYUaZFk
Here is my Over There cover, just in time for Canada day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20DKsdi2u3Q
Warning: I do not have the musical talents of the people who were in the links before me.
I especially liked the the go home and dream of pie line, very good.
Obviously my suggestions/thoughts on the lyrics weren't good enough to get a mention, I am hurt. (I am joking of course, nothing came of what I said really. I had no real role in the making of that song and thus deserve none of the credit)
One small thing that annoyed me was the speed the boxes came and went, I am a slow reader anc couldn't manage to read all of the text. But all in all very good.
I celebrated Canada Day by wearing a T-shirt advertising the Greater Saugeen Trading Co. in Paisley, Ontario. Nobody noticed.
As for Canada day, we have fireworks and stuff. Ottawa is apparently a good place to be. I just spent some time with family and enjoyed an extra day off.
oh wait, like lots of songs, the bridge turned to shit. Anyway, not bad. I don't like rap in my punk!
Rechenaffe (2,9 MB)
Shortcomings in no particular order:
- I cannot sing.
- I haven't played music for six months.
- I only have a condensator mic that's great for vocals and guitars but fails to capture the drum sound adequately. (Note: I know nothing about recording engineering.)
- German requires more syllables than English. I had to conjugate the verbs; otherwise there would have been even more syllables and no native speaker (who's ignorant of the original) would have understood anything. For artistic reasons, I decided to translate "code monkey like you" as a comparison, and not as a statement of affection. Also, I made the whole story more about a guy analyzing data, and not so much a software designer.
- There are no electric guitars. I tried to keep a safe distance to the original version and therefore refrained from using the original drum track. (Otherwise I might have simply used the karaoke version, but then my voice would have sounded even crappier, i.e., higher.)
- I'm not really sure what to make of it - leave it as it is? Bury it and pretend nothing ever happened? Revise the recording once I'm better in shape? Add electric guitars? Find someone who can actually sing? Present it as-is without any warranty?
Well, here it is; as-is without any warranty (under a creative commons license). Maybe I'll take it offline in a couple of weeks and/or rerecord it. Don't know yet - and I've got science to do now, so please excuse me.Jutze
PS: Sorry for not posting more, but my most recent excuse is an acute case of speechlessness caused by Bry and jinx's Talk(s) with JoCo, which is nothing short of amazing.
Lyrics, please?
(originally written by Jonathan Coulton, German lyrics by Johannes Schult)
Rechenaffe steht auf, trinkt Kaffee; Rechenaffe im B
What would the lyric be if you translated "code monkey like you" as a statement of affection?
ETA: I should also mention that I think it's fantastic.
Similar, yet new and different -- I think you've met the JoCo Cover criteria really well!
We need a band of fake multilingual JoCos to tour Europe giving concerts. So far it's Jutze and Jeremsoft.
And Zed-2 is Zed-1 squared plus C!
And Zed-3 is Zed-2 squared plus C!
and so on...."