Yo it’s Erin G heading up the Big Kids with their new single LITTLE BIT o SOMETHING.
Oh yeah!
Archive for the 'Single Tracks' Category
28
Aug
11
Big Kids: Advertising
A song with Music by me and words by Cody
The Big Kids is my new collabotaion thing with my kids.
Telling you what to buy even if it makes you cry
Sell you thing sthat you don’t need
Things that break so easily
Advertising
The American accent is ironic I guess but he won’t sing it without it.
Steve.
12
Feb
11
Weaver’s Ghost Demo
Another Luker and Southern demo for ya. This one is a slow tune for Emma to do some more of her WALL OF VIOLIN work with multiple distorted violin parts.
The beginning has a verse straight away in this version, but if we do a full version, I’d like an Irish whistle solo before the singing starts.
Vox on the demo still a bit dodgy but other than that I kinda like the boomy sound and would want to do something similar on a proper version.
The Weaver’s Ghost mp3 to download
Incidentally, the chords / melody at the end of each verse are from an English trad tune called the Weaver and the Factory Maid. I love this song immensely, probably my favourite Maddy Prior tune. It was important to me at around the time my Dad died so I think that is why the lyrics to my version have ended up being about that.
Steeleye Span – The Weaver and the Factory Maid mp3 to download
Cheers,
GSS.
Yo Emma,
What are the defining features of a demo version?
- Instruments out of tune
- Hastily played
- Singer has a cold
- Pieced together out of stray bits of audio
- Lyrics still subject to change
Ahem. Without further ado may I present the demo version of a new Luker and Southern number pending your veto:
Tony’s Tune / The Love in Your Heart (Luker / McKenzie).
Plenty of room for you to practice violiny bits and an intended reprise of the tune at the end.
Have fun.
S.
23
Oct
10
Broken Arrow
The song Broken Arrow has been around since about 2006 I think. I did a very jazzy recording of it when we were living in the Solomon Islands for Lee to sing, but we never finished that series, so it remains as an instrumental version.
I recorded this much simpler acoustic demo version yesterday, for use in an ensemble featuring my wife Louise Kleinig, Michael Heim, and Jeremy Phillps, and old mate from back in the day.
Here it is, with chords for all you chordy folks.
Intro: Emin – G – Emin – G
Verse: Emin – G – Emin – G x 2
Chorus:
C – C7
Bflat – Bflat maj7
F – Fmaj7 (possibly with a minor 3rd)
C – Cmaj7
Emin – G – Emin G
You’ll pick it up.
22
Dec
09
Body Builder Xmas Special
It’s been hella quiet round here lately but that may change. I have been doing lots of music lately. This first track I’m putting up is your Xmas present from me. Listen to it after eating to much. Love Steve.
SOUTHERN STEVE: BODYBUILDER.MP3
I’m gonna be the biggest man that I possibly can I possibly can I possibly can
I’m not fuckin’ with ya I wanna pump til my muscles hump and til the veins in my arms explode
I’m gonna be the biggest man that I possibly can I possibly can I possibly can
I won’t lie to you now (Why would I lie to you now?) I won’t rest til I look the best because I’m carrying the heaviest load
I wanna be a bodybuilder
I’m gonna be a bodybuilder
ooh ahh
(Merry Xmas.)
12
Sep
09
Modern Plumbing
Southern Steve: Modern Plumbing Mp3
Fight fight, did your parents fight? Did you lie around and listen to ‘em half the night? Ding dang dell, Now you live in hell When you consider who’s in heaven then that’s just as well Y’ can’t stand the music on the radio Can’t stand the people on the TV show (Hey) Hy hey wash the pain away Wash all the little irritations down the drain Scrub until you’re squeaky clean scrub and scrub until your irritation can’t be seen There’s no need to fear Modern Plumbing is here!
11
Aug
09
The Transmission of a Legend
Southern Steve: ‘Legend’ Mp3
Love Will Tear Us Apart might be Joy Division’s best known song, but Transmission probably should be. It’s a better representation of the band’s musical and lyrical power.
Transmission…Radio, Live Transmission…Dance to the Radio…Listen to the Silence…Touching From A Distance…The Language of Sound…
All of those lyrical fragments have been used as the names of bootlegs, books, Myspace sites, magazines, 80s music nights, cover bands, and all hark back to the power of this one song.
The 1979 single version is fine enough but the earlier, slower version on the RCA demo is even better in my view; the band almost stand back from the song and allow that slow, arrogant two-note bass line and the rumbling drums to do their work.
Joy Division – Transmission MP3 (RCA Demo Version).
There is an excellent drum break at the end of this track, with Steven Morris left to slow down the tempo on his own after the rest of the band have stopped playing. It’s a gift to the would-be sampler, containing that hallmark “Joy Division move” as my mate Fraser recently described it: a single tom hit just after the 3rd beat snare, giving the whole thing that lurching, robotic feel. It’s the sound of the classic Joy Division flawed machine.
In my own tune, Legend, I’ve backed up those drums with a midi track including some syn-tom sounds a bit like the ones on Closer, another two note bassline, and some guitar and bass chords with valve distortion and delay, to replicate the sound of the band live, on an album like Live at Eindhoven.
I like the sound, but even as I was doing this song, it occurred to me what a forlorn process it all was, and the lyrics that came to me ended up being about the emptiness of replicating a long-gone original…
It’s Just a Legend
An Empty Legend
A Cold and Empty Legend
You Heard a Dream
And Tried to Make it Real
Anyway, I’ll be back later with some more maunderings,
GSS, feeling alright but a little bogged down, Aug 2009.
23
May
09
Wall of Violin
Last post before I go on a break to the Farhterland,
Here are two tracks showcasing what my recent collaboration with Emma Luker sounds like; somewhere between the Velvet Underground, Steeleye Span and the Dirty Three, as I intended. I’m kinda happy with them, but be warned, they are basically FOLK music, especially the second track, so if that word makes you want to take heroin while you tattoo cocks on your face in an effort to assure your rock and roll credibility, avoid these tracks, they will hurt you.
The first track, Baby Kissing, has the wall of violin effect created by Emma recording six different layered tracks, all distorted. On the final one of these the input went crackly, which lends a certain VU ambience, but will have to be re-done ultimately. Also for the chop before I mix the final version are my vocal efforts here. They are alright but I am somewhat nasal, as I have come down with a feverish cold after my recent annual visit to a piggery. I’m sure it’s nothing.
Enjoy, and there’s more of this to come. In the meantime wish me well as I travel throughout one of the world’s great cultural centres, drinking beer and eating sausages.
The Perfect Hill (McKenzie / trad).
26
Feb
09
Cold Light of Day
The beginning of ‘Disorder’ from Unknown Pleasures has a drum track I have always wanted to sample, and now that’s something I can cross of my to-do list before I head to the mountains again.
Mp3 – Great Southern Steve: Cold Light of Day
I like the bass and guitar and swirly keys enough to call this a keeper, although the lyrics – a maudlin epic about a vampire who feels regret about never seeing daylight – are kind of silly, and could easily be replaced if I have a better idea. I’m planning an EP of stuff like this so a better version / mix is very likely.
Warning: my vampire fetish is entirely whimsical, but seriously, if you are that obsessive kind of person who still lights a candle on Ian’s death-day, don’t listen to this, it will annoy you.
Everyone's been awful nice...