Yaniv’s workshop – Andrew Bird 3-Pack!! (Plus loads of Pavement, and much more!)
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So, after the obscure indie singles, time for some guilty pleasures! Two songs from my childhood hero, and a pretty great pop musician, Robbie Williams!
“Strong“ is the opener and one of the lead singles of Williams 1998’s album “I’ve Been Expecting You“. It was inspired by some of his most hardcore fans, who, Williams confessed, “scared the living daylights out of him”. “I just wanted them to understand I’m not being rude, but I’m feeling a bit scared of everything,” he said. It’s a great rock-pop ballad, full of epic guitars and vocals, and a catchy sing-along chords.
The singalong potential was not wasted – on the final night of Williams’s 2003 Knebworth House concerts, 125,000 ticketholders sang Strong to set the world record for Most Karaoke Participants. Williams and his audience held the record until 2009. It remains one of his most well known songs and a concert staple.
“Come Undone” was the second single from his 2002 hit album “Escapology“. It’s fairly dark in nature – Williams wrote this is about his days of doing cocaine and the effect it had on his mom: “They’re selling razor blades and mirrors in the street,” “Because I’m scum and I’m your son.” It says a lot about it being high one minute and low the next, and the influences of fame. It was also equipped with a rather controversial music video, in which Williams is shown having sex with two models while unsettling images of snakes, rats and bugs are spliced in. It’s controversial nature might have limited his MTV/charts success, but it remains one of his classic tunes, and it’s great fun to play on all instruments.
Thanks, see you next time!
David Berman Tribute Pack
This pack will pay tribute to one of the finest songwriters or recent decades, David Berman. Mostly known as the songwriter and lead singer of the great Silver Jews, he eventually retired from music in 2009. He released one final album, “Purple Mountains” in 2019, which was extremely well received and considered one of the best albums of the year. He committed suicide in August 2019.
This pack will include 3 songs from his phenomenal “Purple Mountains” album, plus a Silver Jews classic.
One of the best songs Berman has written for Silver Jews, “Punks in the Beerlight” is a hard rocking classic full of great guitar riffs, and affecting lyrics about a couple struggling. “If we’d known what it’d take to get here, Would we have chosen to?”, asks Berman, before reaching the catchy chorus that repeats “I always loved you to the max”. There’s a guitar solo, some cool drumming, and some lead vocals from his wife and bass player, Casey Berman, that will become a tragic figure in the next songs.
Also, please note I’ve previously charted the great “Suffering Jukebox” from Silver Jews.
The first single from “Purple Mountains” find David Berman in a completely different situation. After battling with depression all his life, and separated from his wife Casey, Berman wrote one of the essential depression anthems. Set to catchy, upbeat, happy music – Berman sings about all the happiness leaving his life and about his loneliness. “Lately, I tend to make strangers wherever I go/Some of them were once people I was happy to know”. In Berman’s own words:
“For a long time, I’ve struggled very, very much with what people call treatment-resistant depression. It never goes away from me and I’m surprised I’ve made it this far, really, in life. There were probably 100 nights over the last 10 years where I was sure I wouldn’t make it to the morning”.
This song perfectly conveys those feelings, while also being somehow fun, catchy and great to play.
Another in the string of “happy” song titles, “Darkness and Cold” deals with the separation from his wife Cassie, and particularly the concept of her dating other people. Just read those cruel words:
“The light of my life is going out tonight
With someone she just met
She kept it burning longer than I had right to expect
The light of my life is going out tonight
Without a flicker of regret”.
According to Berman, Casie wasn’t actually dating anyone when the song was written – it was written as “preparation”, as Berman knew that someday he’ll have to deal with this idea, so he wanted to “experience it first through this song”. Casie’s going out, as Berman succumbs into his own depression – “Conditions I’m wishing weren’t taking control”. Musically, it’s once again fairly upbeat, with some great lead guitar work and a nice country vibe. It’s another hugely emotional masterpiece from David Berman.
The final song of this pack, the album and David Berman’s career, this is Berman dealing with the terrifying realization that maybe he just wasn’t meant to be in a relationship – “Maybe I’m the Only One For Me”.
It’s once again upbeat, country-rock vibe, fun and the lyrics are actually quite funny – including one of the most memorable line’s of Berman’s career: “If no one’s fond of fucking me, maybe no one’s fucking fond of me“.
It’s fun, rocking, and there’s great guitars all the way through. This song is, according to Berman itself, “from an incel’s perspective”, but Berman says it’s not the kind of message he actually wanted to spread. “I don’t intend it to be a love song to the self— it’s more of an ‘I’m stuck with myself’ song”, Berman says. “If no one wants to fuck you, it’s your fault”.
That’s it, after those 4 amazingly emotional yet somehow really fun to play tunes. I hope you enjoyed it, see you next time.
Radiohead – In Rainbows 3 Pack!
This one has been floating around in several partial versions, so here’s the complete, full band version. It’s based on a custom by TheOreo (which was appearance converted from old FoF charts), but all instruments were changed and improved as needed.
“All I Need” is the 5th track and the 5th single from Radiohead’s classic “In Rainbows”. It’s a dark love song based on some gloomy drums and bass, that evolves into a rousing climax.
“Faust Arp” is a stark, short and beautiful folksy ballad. The custom here is based on an old guitar-only custom by Sideshow, who credits Obzen of FoF for the original guitar charting. I slightly revised the chart and added vocals and keys to create a complete version.
Thom Yorke said on the lyrics: “The more you absorb yourself in the present tense, the more likely that what you write will be good. Especially in this f–king town, where everybody’s sitting in front of their desks for far too long, endlessly sweating over words that don’t ever get heard. People are obsessive in this city and work becomes an end in itself. The polar opposite of that is Michael Stipe, who absorbs himself in other people and the life around him, and that’s where he gets his ideas. I’m not like that, but I absolutely understand why he does it. Neil Young claims he writes lyrics and doesn’t go back to them. If he does, he says, the worse they become. But that’s scary. I mean, ‘Faust Arp’ is the exact opposite of that, pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages until eventually, the good ones stick”.
Probably the biggest one in this pack, “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” is a Radiohead classic and was the first single from In Rainbows. Originally titled “Open Pick”, “Jigsaw” is an upbeat, catchy, guitar based song that talks about a night of heavy drinking and the pickup scene at the bar. Not the most typical topic for Radiohead, but they pulled it off and it’s considered one of their modern classics.
The custom is based on a drum chart by Sideshow and a guitar chart from FoF, originally credited to Anayalata. The guitar track was quite heavily altered though, and several parts were charted from scratch. Rest of the instruments added by myself. I particularly recommend the bass track – apparently nobody told Colin Greenwood there’s a song going on, as he’s playing almost-lead melodic lines for the entire thing, and it’s groovy as hell.All I Need was indeed an FoF convert. It was from a shortly lived “RBRadiohead” project lead by user obZen before he just kinda ghosted. Fun fact is I did the vocals for the original chart. No idea if it’s still there in the new custom version. Thank you for adding some more In Rainbows. I wanna voxtar Faust Arp.
Faust Arp has a slight lyrical error towards the end. “You’ve” is written as “You_ve”. Probably an incompatible character. Easy enough fix though.
All I Need was indeed an FoF convert. It was from a shortly lived “RBRadiohead” project lead by user obZen before he just kinda ghosted. Fun fact is I did the vocals for the original chart. No idea if it’s still there in the new custom version. Thank you for adding some more In Rainbows. I wanna voxtar Faust Arp.
If it was in TheOreo custom than it’s used, but I did go over and edit all the instruments. Still it’s probably mostly intact, I should give you credit for that
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />Faust Arp has a slight lyrical error towards the end. “You’ve” is written as “You_ve”. Probably an incompatible character. Easy enough fix though.
Yeah that’s me using a site that has bad apostrophe… I’ve been trying to avoid those but must have missed that one. I’ll take a look.
And if we’re here:
Lorde “Melodrama” 3-Pack!
The lead single and biggest hit from Lorde’s great 2017 album, Melodrama. It’s also a blast to play on Rock Band, upbeat, fun, with some great keys and really tricky drums (watch out for that disco beat!), and it will make you dance!Lorde said: “The song is actually about a heartbreak. And it’s not something that I really am used to writing about. It took me a while to be able to figure out how to write about that. It was my first major heartbreak. The song is really about those moments kind of immediately after your life changes and about all the silly little things that you gravitate towards. I say, “She thinks you love the beach, you’re such a liar”. What the fuck, she thinks you like the beach?! You don’t like the beach! It’s those little stupid things. It sounds so happy and then the lyrics are so intense obviously. And I realized I was like, “how come this thing is coming out so joyous sounding?” And I realized this is that drunk girl at the party dancing around crying about her ex-boyfriend who everyone thinks is a mess. That’s her tonight and tomorrow she starts to rebuild. And that’s the song for me”.
The last choice for this 3-pack isn’t obvious at all, it’s not a single, it’s probably one of the deepest cuts on the album. It doesn’t have drums, guitar or bass. But it’s my favorite.
It’s just a phenomenal song, with an amazing lyrics I absolutely had to sing in Rock Band. So it’s here.Also, really simple and nice piano to play along this great song.
The second single and final track from “Melodrama”, “Perfect Places” is a beautiful song, with an epic chorus and some honest, profound lyrics.
Lorde said: “this is a special one. i was living in new york during summer last year, writing melodrama – i’d ride across the brooklyn bridge every day, or sit on the subway uptown in the heat, then go back home to new zealand winter for a week at a time to party with my friends. my life was like a weird little etch-a-sketch i kept scribbling on and resetting. and all last summer, i couldn’t shake the feeling that everyone i knew or saw was searching for something – trying to transcend the news and the screaming pavements, drinking that one drink hoping it’d get them someplace higher. this song comes from that endless cycle of evenings and the violent heat of the summer. it took us a very long time to get right, from an aching piano demo to where is it now. it’s close to my heart. i hope you like it”.
(She really does describe those songs better than I do).
Have fun!
I know I already told you once but this release is superb! Thank you again!
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” />I know I already told you once but this release is superb! Thank you again!
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” />Glad you like it!
PS if you downloaded Green Light quickly I suggest you re-download, the original version uploaded had a missing line in the main harmony track.
Violent Femmes 3-Pack!
One of the most iconic tracks from the Violent Femmes legendary debut album, this brilliant song is a blast to play and sing across the board. It includes one of the Femmes most iconic moments – the famous counting bit from 1 to 10, which concludes with a blistering “10 IS FOR EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVERYTHING”. (My personal favorite is “Eight, eight, I forgot what eight was for”). Anyway, if you know the band than you know how big this song is, and if you don’t – give them a shot!
This might not be one of their most famous songs, but it’s a personal favorite. From the legendary “Add it Up” compilation, “36-24-36” is a high tempo, straightforward rocker that will make you work hard across all instruments. The lyrics continue the “angry teenager” character, as our narrator tells us about his desires and fantasies to, well, have sex with a lot of hot woman. It’s 2 minutes of brilliant rock and roll.
“I Held Her In My Arms” was one of the lead tracks from the Femmes third album, “The Blind Leading the Naked”. But the version charted here is an earlier – and IMO, much superior – version from their “Add It Up” compilation. Coming up right after the blistering “36-24-36”, I always used to group those songs together, so it’s only fair to chart them together too!
“I Held Her In My Arms” has the typically angry Femmes vibe, with a huge blistering chorus, and this time with a saxophone too – including a pretty epic solo, charted to keys. It’s an amazing song, so have fun with it!Hope you like it!Frank Sinatra 3-Pack
Many, many thanks to BornGamerRob for doing vocals on all of those! This pack probably wouldn’t have happened without you,
An all-time classic, the jazzy “Fly Me to the Moon” finds Sinatra at his best. Originally written by Bart Howard in 1954, Sinatra’s version is often associated with the Apollo missions. It’s also a lot of fun in the game, particularly singing (thanks Rob!) and the keys part that I’m really happy with, which includes pretty much the entire orchestra and brass arrangement.
Pretty sure this one needs no introducing. I was shocked it wasn’t in the DB, and, well, somebody had to eventually do it… and now you can finally belt out this all-time classic at your living room.
The last one on this pack is a classic duet from Sinatra and his daughter Nancy. Originally written by C. Carson Parks and recorded with his wife Gaile Foote, this is an all-time classic love songs and now you can play it along. Featuring some nice classical guitar playing, a full string arrangement on keys, and a surprisingly tricky harmony voice from Nancy Sinatra.
a fantastic release thanks Yaniv and everyone on the project - You must be logged in to reply to this topic.