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Sick Day
(13 Oct 2008 at 08:17) |
Nels and I played a rock concert as Sick Ridiculous and The Sick Ridiculous at Brianne's birthday party. We were all jazzed up for this one and then beset by a series of runtime failures. Like, in the first song there was feedback (normal, tolerable) and then I got a text message while the song's backing track was playing through the PA off my phone (blunder, but funny) then I broke a string on my guitar, and though I had a spare set of strings I only had the other 5 because I had just replaced that one two days prior. I learned that when a string breaks the whole guitar goes uniformly out of tune (makes sense, since the tension on the neck is reduced); we thought it was Nels so he disappeared to tune and then the next song we were totally not calibrated to one another. But we couldn't give up during that song because that song is about not giving up. We forgot words but that is pretty normal. It was really hot in there too. These are not complaints or excuses, but humorous anecdotes. It seems like it'd be impossible to disappoint these party crowds filled with our friends. In invisible failures: I wasn't recording directly off the PA for the first few songs, and then my guitar mic was off(!) for the rest, so there aren't a lot of usable videos soundwise. This one is just us singin' on the phone:
(Like before, I recommend clicking through to view the HD version or download the original AVI, for maximum quality.) When we are permitted to play a party it is our now publicly proffered deal to write and a perform a new song for the occasion. Usually we just finished writing it so we don't know it and totally blow it in the first performance; this video is our second performance of Unfairbanks. We wrote this for our departing friend George Fairbanks's friend-departing party. It's about the credit crisis. You should know that Sick Ridiculous and The Sick Ridiculous has a good track record of forecasting financial events. This song was written in May. At the end you hear my advice to "sell the shit out of" your stocks, even if it's after hours. Following that advice could have saved you from the worst week of market losses in history. However, past performance does not indicate future gains. (In truth, our only forecasting strategy is whimsical pessimism.)
The song we actually wrote for this event is called Birthday Control, since it's a birthday party. When I'm linking these up, they are links to recorded versions, sure as hell not our live ones. And then there's our new song Sick Day, which actually is a "live" recording of my favorite of our new songs. Live just means one take in my bedroom in this case. |  |
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| Thanks to William Lovas for dutifully videorecording the whole thing! |
Man, the extent to which I compulsively check the RSS reader widget thing on my google homepage has turned me into that creepy guy who always posts first on other people's blogs. But! I have things to say, so the creepiness continues
thing 1) that video and song are really excellent, cool stuff, thanks for posting it
thing 2) I am reminded by your post of music-things to ask if you are going to this:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/145168-elephant-6-crew-to-embark-on-holiday-surprise-tour
and if not wtf? I am super jealous, there is no show here. There are pictures of the new york show somewhere, apparently Jeff Mangum showed and played with OTC and elf power |
Actually I was the first post.
If I'm in town I'll go to the E6 show, but I might be going to CT this weekend. Back in the day Music Tapes was one of my favorites. I'm happy to say that I checked all those bands off my list in college, especially since Jeff Mangum has become reclusive. But they are sure a good show. |
| This is pretty awesome, I like how the reverb makes the drums all boomy. When is the hit album coming out? I am getting pretty impatient. |
Yeah, I love the drums (particularly at the beginning) on the PA. I wish it sounded like that all the time.
The album, well, we are shooting out our MP3s piecemeal as they become available. Whether that album becomes a hit is up to listeners. But I can tell you this: SICK RIDICULOUS AND THE SICK RIDICULOUS DOES NOT WAIT FOR PERMISSION |
| I have avoided commenting until now, for fear of being as creepy as early posters Tom and Chris. But I concur; that song was great. |
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