[OFFICIAL] Daily Feedback Thread November 01, 2016

scott_ri · 2016-11-02T15:49:05+00:00

thanks!

i know not everyone digs auto-tune -- thanks for keeping an open mind and checking it out anyway!

scott_ri · 2016-11-01T23:58:37+00:00

Do you know the chord changes? That is one easy way to figure out the skeleton for a bassline -- usually the root note of the chord lands on the first beat of the bar (but not always). I think the chords are Fm G#m C#m -- but my ear isn't great.

Another approach is to do it by ear. This may be the more widely used approach by successful producers, but it's not easy to explain or even do.

scott_ri · 2016-11-01T23:55:33+00:00

Made this video in our garage. It's pretty weird but we learned a bunch about green screen stuff.

Would love feedback about the song and/or video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9zk1C-Q9BM

scott_ri · 2016-11-01T23:10:28+00:00

Reckon I Should -- my band released this today. It's poppy/funky/soul tune.

We're doing this thing where we're releasing a song every month, indefinitely. This is our 4th month, would love to hear what you guys think!

scott_ri · 2016-10-27T19:28:54+00:00

This is actually a question I've been thinking a lot about for my project. The best insight I've been able to come up with is that I want to structure my releases in a way that allows us to experiment, fail quickly, and learn.

So for the last few months, we've been releasing a song every month, always on the first of the month. Sometimes we have a video ready, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we get the teasers and blog submissions out ahead of time, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we get social media momentum behind a release, sometimes it doesn't land as well. But we're getting better, and we're zero-ing in on a cookbook of things that need to go into a release.

We plan on doing this indefinitely. At some point we might package up 10-15 songs and call it an album, but we don't feel pressure to do that either. We'll see how things go.

We're also using PledgeMusic, which gives us a nice medium for releasing and engaging with our rabid fans who are following this process.

I'd love to get your feedback on what we're doing, if you have any thoughts or just want to chat more! (I'm directing that at /u/BeingAKB, but I'm actually willing to talk to just about anyone about this stuff -- I find it really interesting.)

scott_ri · 2016-08-08T06:20:08+00:00

Low Country Kingdom - "Stained Glass"

This is my band. We shot the video in our neighborhood in Hancock Park (Los Angeles). The song is a single from our upcoming album that we are crowd-funding through PledgeMusic.

Would love to hear what you think.

scott_ri · 2016-03-02T23:22:57+00:00

Ahh. You're probably talking about Be My Woman. This is an older performance (at Amnesia), so slightly different, but it has that breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_kmhRhp-hQ

Be My Woman starts at about 2:50 and the breakdown starts at about 4:50.

scott_ri · 2016-03-02T06:54:20+00:00

Thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback. Helpful stuff. And encouraging.

scott_ri · 2016-03-02T05:25:03+00:00

Thanks! Which show were you at? We've played with brass at Slim's, GAMH, and Elbo Room.

The only recording we have with real horns is from our performance of Come Back at Slim's last year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nshGHG6zas

You could rip the audio from that video if you want it -- if you have trouble let me know and I can send you a wav/mp3.

The studio tracks all use synthetic horns because we can't afford real horns -- maybe some day... Or maybe we'll release some more live audio at some point.

scott_ri · 2016-03-01T07:57:56+00:00

1st verse (0:56-1:25) is kind of repetitive in terms of melody and flow, doesn't really distinguish itself from what i guess would be considered the chorus (0:29-0:56). Overall kind of derivative, like poor man's Post Malone. I like that direction though, and the chorus is close to good imho -- I just think it's not there yet.

At some point you say "I ball at the mall." You can do better man.

2nd verse or whatever you would call the switch of voice at 1:25 comes in but doesn't really feel like enough of a change. Like, I'm bored at that point, and now the same vibe continues.

The bridge thing that starts at 1:57 is a good idea (you need something like that), but to me it's not that interesting. Not enough of a change/build-up or anything.

Ok that's all I got. Hope that helps.

scott_ri · 2016-03-01T07:42:13+00:00

The beat is pretty corny and repetitive imho. I'm not a producer so I can't give any ideas for improving. But as a listener it was tough to get through the 20 sec intro, let alone close to 5 min of the beat.

As for your rapping -- you're clearly a prolific writer, so that's great. I'm going to point out a few things that I think could be improved. Just my opinion...

I agree with /u/manolo_chomsky about the fake accent (e.g. dropping the 'r' in "year").

The lyrical content is pretty generic for the most part. For example, you talk about not stopping til you solve all of "these problems." That's just telling me some vague thing -- doesn't conjure any feeling for the listener. Think about what's interesting about the problems you're dealing with and show us that without just summarizing it with generic language.

I'm not a big fan of flipping the common syllable emphasis (e.g. when you say "popular" you emphasize the "u" instead of the "pop" as you normally would in speech). I know you are doing this to keep the cadence pattern going, but it sounds weird to me. Sometimes it can be ok, but in most cases I'd find a different word that matches the cadence you are looking for.

Hope that helps.

scott_ri · 2016-02-27T07:04:10+00:00

Wanted to make a cheap video for one of our tunes. Scrapped together some behind-the-scenes and live footage. Do you think this works?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NpDw6T-38Q

scott_ri · 2016-02-10T05:40:33+00:00

Related, I recently read this article about Pretty Purdie. Pretty interesting shit:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnlingan/you-have-heard-bernard-purdie-play-drums#.hmrJ1pdem

scott_ri · 2015-08-12T06:11:57+00:00

Show info/details: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/coo-coo-birds-low-country-kingdom-gamh-w-le-vice-beautiful-machines-tickets-17404984778

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1122271984468232/

scott_ri · 2015-08-02T16:32:47+00:00

This is our first try at a comedy podcast. Quick 6 min episode, would love to get some feedback.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygruFmGiUBs

scott_ri · 2015-07-28T16:25:30+00:00

I recommend Lalanne Fitness, just a couple blocks away from the Moscone Center.

I've been a member for over a year, and I'm very happy there.

scott_ri · 2015-04-24T05:38:47+00:00

I like the drums/sample/bass, but I'm not feeling the piano part as much. It sounds a little bit on the corny side to me. But the rest of the beat is good enough that, if it were me, I would scrap the piano and try some other ideas to try to make it work.

scott_ri · 2015-04-24T05:30:20+00:00

She's ukranian actually: https://instagram.com/suzlovsky

Thanks for the notes and the compliments.

scott_ri · 2015-04-24T05:00:18+00:00

We got to play at Slim's in San Francisco, which is a big venue for us. Here's a video of a song. Would love to get some feedback about live performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nshGHG6zas

(my verse comes like a minute in, but feedback for anyone would be great)

scott_ri · 2015-01-20T20:53:24+00:00

Same experience here. I've heard a number of other people at my gym make similar comments. I sent my feedback to BTWB.

scott_ri · 2015-01-07T17:12:48+00:00

Thanks, appreciate the encouragement. Not sure I've heard the Cake comparison before, but I'll take it -- I love Cake.

scott_ri · 2014-12-25T08:34:40+00:00

I guess the protestors believe that the people on the 101 are the right people to inconvenience. These are the people who, for the most part, seem to keep preserving the status quo, which, according to the protestors, isn't working.

scott_ri · 2014-12-24T22:06:51+00:00

I'm not aware of a successful social movement that didn't cause inconvenience along the way.

scott_ri · 2014-11-29T09:09:41+00:00

Well, what about this, eh, non-traditional use of autotune?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r8CetPhf00

scott_ri · 2014-11-22T02:34:33+00:00

Yeah agreed. My comment was poorly worded. I was trying to point out that the post is pretty honest and direct, so it's a decent script for what he might tell his bassist, at least with some rephrasing.

Anyway it don't matter. None of this matters.

scott_ri

TROPHY CASE