40 in 40 by steelopus

I recorded 40 cover songs in 40 days. Here they are.

[40in40]

40 in 40: What It Was

I guess I should provide a little explanation about this project that I undertook.

I had absolutely nothing planned for any of this. I just happened to be up late on the night of Ash Wednesday 2011 and found myself in a bit of a somber mood, so I plugged in and recorded a song. People seemed to enjoy it so I decided to make it a thing: I would give up “not recording a song every day” for Lent.

To be honest, I kind of made up the rules as I went along. As I progressed I found that more than anything else it grew into an exercise for me to become more familiar and comfortable with my voice - discovering what works and what doesn’t, etc. I’ve never been a very confident singer and I don’t think 40 covers significantly changed that, but I challeneged myself to try it and find out.

After the first week I had established the following set of rules:

Record 40 cover songs in 40 days.

Only one song from any band.

Songs from solo albums are OK (e.g., I can do a Rivers Cuomo song and a Weezer song, or a David Bazan song and a Pedro The Lion song, etc.)

No loops or samples (virtual instruments and effects are OK).

I had to completely finish recording the song before midnight and then draft up the post for the next morning. No touch-ups were allowed the next day, but I could get ahead of the game and work on more than one song in any single day, as long as the one that was posted the following day was finished by midnight.

Other than those rules, it was a free for all. Some songs came out a bit better than others. Some received completely different treatments than the originals while some were note-for-note duplicate performances. I consciously tried to force myself to not be too technical with the recording process by not getting too mucked up with microphone placement, digital effects, tone, etc. I wanted to make it sound good, but I didn't expect it to sound great.

To answer a few questions that I’ve received:

No there won’t be a CD, but I’ll likely share the mp3s at some point.

No I did not take requests or suggestions.

Yes I appreciate feedback and constructive criticism.

Yes I performed everything you hear on these.

Recording process: Garageband, Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, various mics and instruments.

You can find all the original posts from the project (music, photos, reflections) tagged as 40 in 40 at Steelopus.com.

Why are there 41 songs?

So - thanks for listening and thanks for your hearts and reblogs and do not hesitate to ask me questions or provide feedback. You can reply, use my ask box, or email me at steelopus [at] gmail {dot} com.

The following links will take you directly to the individual songs and the links to the right will appear on every page you visit.

Pedro The Lion - Options

Foreigner - Cold As Ice

Weezer - Butterfly

The Presidents Of The USA - Stranger

Nerf Herder - Nosering Girl

Ben Kweller - Lizzy

That Dog. - Silently

Imperial Teen - Lipstick

The Cardigans - My Favorite Game

Nada Surf - Blizzard of ‘77

Phantom Planet - Always On My Mind

The Cars - You’re All I’ve Got Tonight

Hawksley Workman - No Sissies

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Crosstown Traffic

They Might Be Giants - Dead

Harvey Danger - Pike St./Park Slope

Headphones - I Never Wanted You

Queens of the Stone Age - Long Slow Goodbye

Thin Lizzy - Chinatown

Nine Inch Nails - The Wretched

Guns N’ Roses - Don’t Cry (alternate lyrics)

Spirit - Nature’s Way

David Bazan - Cold Beer And Cigarettes

Devo - Girl U Want

Ben Folds Five - Kate

Tool - Forty-six & 2

Cake - Frank Sinatra

Blur - Tender

The Rentals - She Says It’s Alright

Toadies - Pressed Against The Sky

Silverchair - Tomorrow

Manchester Orchestra - Tony The Tiger

Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely

Green Day - Hitchin’ A Ride

Splashdown - The Archer

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Susie Q

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - American Girl

Joe Jackson - Steppin’ Out

Pink Floyd - Young Lust

Superdrag - Keep It Close To Me

Jesus Christ Superstar - The Last Supper / Gethsemane (I Only Want To Say)

[40in40]

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Jesus Christ Superstar - The Last Supper & Gethsemane (I Only Want To Say)

Go big or go home?

I originally planned on doing only The Last Supper, but it felt completely empty without Gethsemane, so I did them both. Doing both those songs would’ve been tough enough with my original plans - in which I thought I’d be able to spend a full 7 days working on them. Then my family came to visit for 5 days and so I actually only had 2 days to complete all of this. So much for seeing how much better I could do at a leisurely pace!

Skipping all the piano and orchestra parts meant both songs ended up a bit more “rock and roll” than their various original versions, as I replaced that stuff with some crunchy guitars. I would never pretend to have even 10% as much vocal talent as the great Ian Gillian, or Ted Neeley, or Murray Head, or Carl Anderson. Their performances are legendary and I tried not to imitate them wherever possible, though some of the crazy-high melodies are essential to the production, so I did the best I could do. Go big or go home. With these two, more than any of the previous 40, I surely can’t be accused of not putting myself out there.

So, after two solid days of recording and mixing, I thought I was done. I exported a version and while listening I heard a few things that I wanted to tweak, so I reopened the session and as I got to the end of Gethsemane I noticed that the drums, bass, and guitar tracks had vanished. I have no idea what happened. It may well have been my mistake, though it feels like a technical error. Regardless, the session is mostly lost and we’re left with this original export. It has everything in there and it’s good enough to get my point across - though it’s mixed a little rougher than I’m happy with, but as it’s nearly 3:30am, I’m going to chalk it up as a loss. Jesus might have resurrected, but these lost tracks certainly won’t.

This is the end. Thanks to all of you for joining me on this insane journey. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Happy Easter.

Originally recorded: April 21-23, 2011

[40in40]

41 in 47 or 1 in 6?

So, my astute readers will probably realize that today is, in fact, not Easter Sunday. It is, actually, 6 days before Easter Sunday.

“But” they’d ask, “if Lent is always 40 days long, how did you managed to record 40 days worth of songs, starting on Ash Wednesday, and not end up on Easter Sunday?”

Well, as it turns out, Lent is longer that 40 days. In fact, it’s always 46 days in length.

“But” they’d continue, “how is that possible? Why don’t they just tell us it’s 46 days long?”

Little did I know, the six Sundays that occur between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday are not counted. I guess I repressed that fact along with countless other facets of my catholic upbringing.

“Huh.” they’d quip.

Yup. Huh. Indeed.

“So what does that mean for your 40 in 40 project? Will you be recording 6 more songs and re-branding the project to 46 in 46?”

No. I will not. Sorry. Instead, here’s what I’ll be doing:

I’m going to spend the days between now and Easter Sunday working on one song. I’ll give my full attention to one song to see how much better I can do when I’m more relaxed and not scrambling to finish recording by midnight each night.

“What song?!?!?”

You’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

[40in40]

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Superdrag - Keep It Close To Me

I’m surprised that no one correctly guessed Superdrag as my 40th band. They’ve been one of my favorite bands since 1995. I’ve traveled to see them play in both NYC and LA (and others for a total of 8 shows). I’ve posted a lot of their music and I wrote a long review of their last release.

When I decided what 40 in 40 would become, I had a very short list of bands to include and Superdrag was at the top of it. The only reason they ended up as the last band is that I just couldn’t settle on a single song. There are literally dozens of tracks that are worthy of my attention (I would’ve had the same problems with both weezer and Pedro The Lion, but I recorded each of those two tracks before I committed to my rule of only one song per band). John Davis is one of my generation’s best rock n roll writers and anyone that didn’t write-off Superdrag as a one-hit wonder has been rewarded with consistently great music.

I slowly narrowed down my choices to five songs that I really loved and felt I could do justice, and ultimately settled on this track because I’ve always felt a really strong connection to how hard it rocks and to it’s lyrics. It felt like a very appropriate way to end this project.

I want rock and roll but I don’t want to deal with the hassle. I know what I know but I don’t want to feel like an asshole. It’s direct. Suspect. Insects have launched an invasion. Chosen. Frozen. Poison in my vaccination. I’m gonna figure out what’s mine and keep it close to me. It’s supposed to be. I’ve got rock and roll and it used to deliver me sweetly I’m not gullible but I feel like I’ve lost it completely. Let’s make the most of it right now. Let’s make the most of what we’ve got - God only knows where it came from. Let’s make the most of it right now. Why is it hard to imagine making life worth the distraction from now on? I’m gonna figure out what’s mine and keep it close to me. It’s supposed to be.

Thank you to everyone that listened, liked, and reblogged over the past 40 days. Your support, both public and private, kept me motivated on the bad days and pushed me to be better on the good days. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Originally recorded: April 17, 2011

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Pink Floyd - Young Lust

There’s not much to this song, especially when you take out the piano/synth textures, which is why I managed to go from start to finish in under 90 minutes.

This might be my best drum performance of the entire project. The tempo was just right and I like the heavy rock/funk beat because it’s really easy to find the pocket and groove with it.

Dave Gilmour is a truly immortal guitar hero, but throughout his career he’s consistently played solos that are very accessible for mere mortals. I’d say that makes his body of work even more impressive, as he’s never relied upon flash or gimmick to earn his place in rock history.

Just one more song to go, folks. Just. One. More.

Originally recorded: April 16, 2011

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Joe Jackson - Steppin’ Out

This one started out as just an excuse to play with my Pro~One.

Then I remembered I can’t play piano to save my life so I recorded guitar parts instead and sort of rocked it out a bit.

Originally recorded: April 15, 2011

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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - American Girl

Happy birthday, Nicky!

Originally recorded: April 14, 2011

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Creedence Clearwater Revival - Susie Q

So, despite some positive feedback (thank you!), I wasn’t all that pleased with yesterday’s song; it was honestly my worst performance of the entire project. I spent a large portion of the day doubting myself and stressing out because I knew I’d be at work until after 8pm, leaving me very little time for recording (and obviously no dinner, duh!). Adding to the stress was the fact that I had basically run out of songs on my to-do list so I truly had nothing prepared.

On the drive home I reminded myself of something I learned early in the project: know your strengths and your weaknesses. Adapting Eastern-influenced female voiced electronic music is clearly not my strength. What is? Blues-based rock and roll. That is what I do best. I effortlessly learned this and banged out all the parts in just 2 hours, and almost 1 hour of that was spent mixing.

Needless to say, I feel much better today.

Originally recorded: April 13, 2011

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Splashdown - The Archer

If I had to venture a guess, I’d say no more than 5 of my followers have even heard of this band, let alone heard this song.

On the one hand that’s too bad because Splashdown was one of my favorite bands of all time and without the original you can’t quite understand how daring (stupid?) it was for me to even attempt this cover… on the other hand… without the comparison you might not realize how sad my version actually is. Though, I guess it’s not all that good no matter how you look at it.

I was air drumming along all day in the car, at my desk at work, while eating dinner, etc. I swore I had this thing. I was going to own this cover. Then I sat down at the drumset and realized (yet again) that air drumming does not necessarily translate to real drumming.

Then I put a mic on front of my face and opened my mouth and dear god why? Melissa Kaplan ranks right up there with Hawksley Workman as musicians that I love who have quite possibly the best voices I’ve ever heard.

Anyway. You should totally go listen to the original. It’s a great song for both waking up and falling asleep. I’ve been meaning to draft up a nice Splashdown tribute post for years. Maybe next month I’ll finally do it.

Originally recorded: April 12, 2011

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Green Day - Hitchin’ A Ride

I took one stab at trying to play Tre’s drum part before giving up and deciding I’d do an acoustic version instead. Maybe I could play the drum part with a week of practice, but not with only 5 minutes.

Unsurprisingly I think the song translated pretty well to acoustic. Great songs will sound good no matter what the instrumentation is.

Also, I finally got to use my slide whistle in the project!

Originally recorded: April 11, 2011

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Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely

I’ve always thought this was one of their best songs. I’m a sucker for hemiola.

It loses a teensy bit without all the atmospheric textures that they layered on the original, though the birds chirping at the end thanks to recording with the windows open were a nice surprise. Spring has sprung.

Originally recorded: April 10, 2011

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Manchester Orchestra - Tony The Tiger

This one didn’t turn out quite to my liking, especially the drum part which I had never played before recording it, but I’ll take it.

Yes, I’m probably too hard on myself.

Originally recorded: April 9, 2011

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Silverchair - Tomorrow

It felt great to cover a song that really rocks. It’s been a while.

Originally recorded: April 8, 2011

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Toadies - Pressed Against The Sky

Listen: I’m exhausted. This project has taken up, quite honestly, every minute of my free time for the past 30 days. There have been days when I questioned why I was even bothering, why anyone was listening, if anyone actually cared, and if it was worth all the lost sleep, skipped meals, and increased stress.

Despite good effort and steadfast dedication, many of these covers have just disappointed me. Those days are tough.

But then sometimes I record a cover like this one and, despite having only eaten a bowl of rice for dinner and despite typing this up at 1:30am and despite the fact that I still have 10 more long days of this ahead of me, I feel good about myself. This isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty good.

Originally recorded: April 7, 2011

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The Rentals - She Says It’s Alright

I’m not gonna lie. I recorded this one on Sunday because I knew I wouldn’t get home from work on Wednesday anytime before 11pm.

It took two takes on Sunday and listening back now I’m pretty sure I could’ve just shat it out in 15 minutes on Wednesday night and it would’ve sounded the same.

Anyway. There haven’t been many 40 in 40 songs for which I recorded vocals and guitar simultaneously, but this is one of them and it certainly shows.

Originally recorded: April 6, 2011

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Blur - Tender

Long songs are long.

Originally recorded: April 5, 2011

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Cake - Frank Sinatra

Another thing I’m learning with this project is the beauty of a simple song with many layers. Here you have four chords for four minutes. Normally that would bore the shit out of people and they’d be reaching for the dial or heading for the door. However, few bands layer harmonies into a mix as well as Cake, and it’s the harmonies (built from dead-simple musical lines spread across various instruments) that drive this song.

Originally recorded: April 4, 2011