The 5th Annual Gift of Music!!!!

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:03 am

Guilty as charged.

I've already contacted LSK (my giftee) with apologies for lateness. But it is being worked on (and is far more complex than I'd anticipated in the beginning, though it's something I've wanted to do for a long-ass time). He/she/they will get it from me, and hopefully soon.

Just wanted to out myself all proper-like.

j$ · Post by j$ » Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:19 am

I'll send this to Jack (seeing as ever he was far more with it and cool to suggest it in the first place) but if you are someone who is willing to help out in a hxaro for those cool folk who got stiffed, then PM me, and we will work it out so that everybody stiffed gets something.

Billy's Little Trip · Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:28 am

Niveous wrote:
j$ wrote:Sign me up for helping out a stiffee...
Don't let BLT or Caravan Ray hear you make an offer like that.

Ha, I did let a little chuckle out. I'm so immature.

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:33 am

j$ wrote:I'll send this to Jack (seeing as ever he was far more with it and cool to suggest it in the first place) but if you are someone who is willing to help out in a hxaro for those cool folk who got stiffed, then PM me, and we will work it out so that everybody stiffed gets something.

heh. i was hoping you'd be willing to help me out with this idea. let me know if you want to tackle anything together and i'll do the same.

thanks to albatross for making this easier to find the songlists. i say anyone feeling motivated to do a cover for those giftless folks, just up and go for it and post in this thread.

ok. go.

Eddiebangs · Post by **Eddiebangs** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:51 am

frankie big face wrote:Eddie, give us a deadline for voting, please.

EDIT: Actually, I'm going to vote right now, but others may like a firmer date.

Hows' about this:
If your vote is not received by Fri, 2/1/08 you will most likely get a nasty email telling you to hurry up...

Billy's Little Trip · Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:13 pm

Holy Crap!!!
Guess who doesn't feel he's too important to talk to the little people? Check out the message I just received the other day. (01/23/0-eight)

Copy and past:
Chris,

Well, not bad at all. I like the vocals tho I don't think you made
enough of "It's such a problem" which was really the point of the song
but believe me I've heard far worse interpretations. Well done. Make
sure you put it on the B-Side of your big worldwide hit!!!

David Thomas
Director, Ubu Projex
http://www.ubuprojex.net
http://www.hearpen.com

This is SO cool! Of course it would have been better if he thought that I interpreted him better. But I really didn't fully understand the song untill I was finished with it. I was in love with the melody and feel, and never really thought of the lyrics as more than the City in the summer being like dreaming of a relaxing beach or something along those lines. But coming from a guy that is respected by so many musicians, I'm taking it as good.

By the way, this probably means that he listened to the other GOM songs at SoulTree, because that is the only place my/Em's Heaven cover is posted. All I can say is neeto!

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:26 pm

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Holy Crap!!!
Guess who doesn't feel he's too important to talk to the little people? Check out the message I just received the other day. (01/23/0-eight)

Copy and past:
Chris,

Well, not bad at all. I like the vocals tho I don't think you made
enough of "It's such a problem" which was really the point of the song
but believe me I've heard far worse interpretations. Well done. Make
sure you put it on the B-Side of your big worldwide hit!!!

David Thomas
Director, Ubu Projex
http://www.ubuprojex.net
http://www.hearpen.com

This is SO cool! Of course it would have been better if he thought that I interpreted him better. But I really didn't fully understand the song untill I was finished with it. I was in love with the melody and feel, and never really thought of the lyrics as more than the City in the summer being like dreaming of a relaxing beach or something along those lines. But coming from a guy that is respected by so many musicians, I'm taking it as good.

That is AWESOME! Did you send him the link, or did he just find you on his own??

Congrats, dude!

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:36 pm

PS -- BLT, you should cordially invite him to start Songfighting! How cool would THAT be?

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:48 pm

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Holy Crap!!! ...

Hah! - that's great!...or is it...oh no - does that mean that all the famous people that I have covered over the years are listening to my songs!!! (why not? - I guess they would get as much as a buzz as we do). I hope I don't get a nasty letter one day from Thomas Dolby for last years "Budapest by Blimp"

bz£ · Post by **bz£** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:57 pm

I got a letter from Abba last year, but it was too filled with obscenities to print. Also I am totally invited to a hashish orgy next time I'm in Stockholm. Also BLT's letter is so awesome that my powerful vocabulary fails me.

Albatross · Post by **Albatross** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:00 pm

Caravan Ray wrote:I hope I don't get a nasty letter one day from Thomas Dolby for last years "Budapest by Blimp"

I think he'd be more upset about what you said about his song than how you performed it.

Now, if I could get a letter from Frank Zappa, that would be the ultimate.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:52 pm

Haha, Albatross.

You know, on Wed afternoon I made a similar list but chickened out of actually posting it since I am on the list of stiffees. Anyway, I wonder if we should see if any of the stiffers are almost done and not cover those yet? Maybe. Maybe not. For the most part we haven't heard from that list of stiffers yet.
-bill

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:21 pm

anti-m wrote: That is AWESOME! Did you send him the link, or did he just find you on his own??

Congrats, dude!

I didn't send him an MP3, but I did mention soultree in my first email to him. It would have been really cool if he just randomly found it, but here is how it played out.

I wrote 01/08/08:
Hi David,
My name is Chris Dienst, also an Ohio boy, but I've lived in California now for 25 years.
I was hoping you can help me out. I'm having trouble figuring out the background whisper vocals on your song Heaven. I just keep whispering salsa sizzle, lol.
Let me explain. I'm a member of a site called Song Fight. We are a community of musicians and we have a number of different challenges, etc, that we do mainly for the enjoyment of making music. One of the things we do is called "Gift Of Music" and will be on the soultreerecord.com site. It's like a secret Santa thing. All members pick their 4 favorite songs, and a name is picked out of a "cyber" hat. Then the musician that picked your name, picks one of your 4 songs and surprises you with a cover of it they record. It's every December and the songs are due Jan 10th. One of my giftee's 4 favorite songs, is your song Heaven. So I chose to record it. I hope that's ok with you by the way. It's a one time deal and I don't sell my music, mainly because no one would buy it, lol. I just write and record for my creative outlet now, so that I don't go mad.
Anyway, I plan on recording the vocals tomorrow, so if you get this before then, please let me know. You have an interesting sense of time, by the way, lol. I had a hard time with it, but managed to make it work. I'm sure that you are a very busy man, so if you don't get back to me, I understand. But even if you don't get this email in time, I'd still like to know what you are saying.

Thank you,
Chris

He replied 01/09/08:
The whisper vocal parts were never anything specific - rhythmical more
than lyrical. Had something to do with "solar beat" but contorted for
the rhythm

David Thomas
Director, Ubu Projex
http://www.ubuprojex.net
http://www.hearpen.com

I replied 01/09/08:
Thank you, I thought that might be the case, but I became more curious the more I listened. I do the same from time to time.
Also, thank you for getting back to me so quickly. For every one thing that I dislike about the Internet, there's another that I love.
Thank you,
Chris

I haven't responded to his last email yet, because I wanted to think about what I was going to say first, after my giddy school girl glee subsided. Of course, trying to come up with something good to say will probably make me sound like a douche. So I'm just going to say thanks. But I have to be honest, I'm dying to ask him to collab with me sometime. But I'm sure he gets bugged all the time by people and I don't want to become a pain in his ass. He was nice enough to reply to me, AND go to soultree and have a listen AND email what he thought, so I'm just going to say thanks and move on. Then I will tell my grandkids someday how I had a chance to collaborate with David Thomas, but chose not too, LOL.

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:46 pm

reist wrote:I still don't understand what GOM is.

j$ wrote:That's because you're an idiot.

Alright alright! I went to the site, and it turns out that GOM is a pretty cool deal. Too bad I missed out ... I guess I'm in for next year.

sausage boy · Post by **sausage boy** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:58 pm

when Leaf covered Custards 'Apartment' for me a couple of years ago, I emailed the mp3 off to Dave McCormack (singer/songwriter of Custard). He emailed back with a positive response, which I dutifully passed on to Leaf.

Oh, and I am a stiffee who has heard nought from my stiffer. So, you know, I am on the list, i guess.

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:00 pm

I once beat Dave McCormack at a pub trivia night in Fortitude Valley. How's that for a piss-weak brush with fame!

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:24 pm

Caravan Ray wrote:I once beat Dave McCormack at a pub trivia night in Fortitude Valley. How's that for a piss-weak brush with fame!

Har! I was beaten by Quasi / Sleater Kinney at trivia night -- but I swear they cheated!

I also used to occasionally see Steven Malkmus at that same trivia night... which made me so retarded I couldn't even look at the man. (God he's DREAMY!)

BLT, that story is great. Thanks for sharing the whole tale. For the record, I think you hit the "it's such a problem" just fine. I don't know what DT is on about.

I also hear he's big on collabs. At least he's worked with a number of different musicians. I think you should ask him! Cartoonmonkey once asked him if he could do some album art, and he politely declined. What's the worst thing that could happen? He says no? Good lord, man! Seize the carp! Collaborate! (And if he says no, I'm game! Ask me! I'm no David Thomas, but I'm nice!)

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:33 pm

I'd love to work with you Em. We'll definitely do something sometime. Maybe they'll have a Four Non Blonds cover fight here someday.

*runs!*

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:36 pm

Billy's Little Trip wrote:I'd love to work with you Em. We'll definitely do something sometime. Maybe they'll have a Four Non Blonds cover fight here someday. *runs!*

GRRROOOOOOAN!

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:43 pm

anti-m wrote:
Billy's Little Trip wrote:I'd love to work with you Em. We'll definitely do something sometime. Maybe they'll have a Four Non Blonds cover fight here someday. *runs!*

GRRROOOOOOAN!

Ha! Check your inbox

And you know, I might just mention the collab thing. Like you said, wtf...err whatever it was that you said that made me say to myself, "self, wtf".

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:02 pm

Actually, this might make an interesting "optional challenge" to the GOM -- Inform the original artist (if he / she is still around) of your cover, and attempt to get a review. I'd like to hear more stories like BLT's!

Somehow I don't think I'll be able to get hold of the Fall Out Boys, though.

Robyn Hitchcock, though, might be convinced to review!

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:10 pm

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Maybe they'll have a Four Non Blonds cover fight here someday. *runs!*

The sad thing is that I'd actually do it because I love playing "Drifting".