Total Request Taped
No hay garaje. No hay banda.
Virginia Country Gentleman – The Handpicked Successors
Virginia Country Gentleman – The Handpicked Successors
Virginia Country Gentleman – The Handpicked Successors
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What’s funny about is how like your writing this song is, James. Same strengths, same excesses, same promise.
— Tony Comstock · Oct 8, 03:23 AM · #
Yes! It’s like Syd Barrett, Scott Weiland and Billy Corgan got together to get fucked up and write a song for a Watchmen trailer.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Oct 8, 03:36 AM · #
I was thinking more like The White Album meets Dirt. But yeah, first thing I thought was “movie music.”
— Tony Comstock · Oct 8, 03:46 AM · #
Robin Hitchcock. There is a long tradition behind that particular sneering, sing-song, semi-proficient voice. One might say that it is caught up in it’s very esscence with attitudes towards class, show buisness, and professionalism present in England in the 1960s.
This is not a criticism. That was a fine snippet of music in a tradition I have always enjoyed.
— cw · Oct 8, 02:12 PM · #
“There is a long tradition behind that particular sneering, sing-song, semi-proficient voice. One might say that it is caught up in it’s very esscence with attitudes towards class, show buisness, and professionalism present in England in the 1960s.”
This is spot on, and if I have a criticism, it’s James does go far enough with it. If I were the producer on this track, this is how I’d explain it:
You know when you’re studying a foreign language and in order to get the accent right you have to exaggerate so much (or feel like your exaggerating so much) that it feels like you’re doing a caricature? That’s what it takes to actually “be yourself”; to offer your voice, untrained and unvarnished and say “This is the way that I sing.”
But when you’re trying to get the right accent in Spanish, you have Mexican radio to help you get a aural image of your caricature (“RePUBblica!) But what do you have when you’re trying to be yourself? When you’re an original where have you ever heard yourself “just being yourself” before?
That’s what I mean about this track being so much like James writing. On that other post cw said he didn’t think James was trying hard enough, but I’d say James isn’t letting James be James, or at least not very much yet, and not nearly enough.
Not that that’s an easy thing to do. As I said elsewhere, even when I was competent enough as a photographer/filmmaker/writer to be paying a mortgage I still had no real clue who I was as an artist. Even when I got my first clue, I didn’t really know what to do with it, and once I came face to face with it, it scared the shit out of me, and pretty much continues to scare the shit out of me on a daily basis.
Most people aren’t Stratovariuses, but everyone’s voice is unique, and in the right context, interesting, and sometimes even beautiful. I mean that both literally and metaphorically. There’s a lot of beauty and wisdom in the world if you take the time to listen.
— Tony Comstock · Oct 8, 02:30 PM · #
Yeah, great point. I’m not sure I was fully conscious of that last night (ahem), but I’m sure that’s why it reminded me of Syd Barrett’s solo stuff.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Oct 8, 02:32 PM · #
We really are on the same vibe, aren’t we Kris? The thought I had after “movie music” was “I’d really like to hear a fully stripped down version of this; no FX, guitar and voice, and maybe a tambourine.”
— Tony Comstock · Oct 8, 02:36 PM · #
Let us press James to our bossom and suckle him.
Listen to the old heads, young fella (You are a conservative, are you not? And obligated to respect your elders and tradition?). We were not always stoop-bound winos. Once we too had wings. Once…. we flew.
— cw · Oct 8, 05:23 PM · #
Your comments are of great interest and I appreciate them very much. If you want a little more to chew on, the place to find it is the official website of The Handpicked Successors.
— James · Oct 8, 07:09 PM · #
One of the previous owners of my boat put in a crazy stereo system. Too many wires. Speakers have been quitting one by one since I got it. But one of the fellows coming with me does lights and sound at Galapagos and traced it all back to the harness coming out of the radio/cd player. Now the boat is thumpin!
Of course I’m burning a copy of Southern Cross onto the iPod we’re taking. I’m going to put your tracks on it too and see what sort of memories they attach themselves to. Mostly pleasant I hope. All unforgettable I’m sure.
— Tony Comstock · Oct 8, 09:58 PM · #
I like the name “Handpicked Successors.” Handpicked suggests delecate fruits and Successors a genus of cacti or maybe lamprey.
— cw · Oct 8, 10:10 PM · #
I also enjoyed your music JP. When you listen to the whole thing the voice is more Morrisey/Bowie/Cave. But you definitely have a nice British isle sound to your diction. But I especially liked the guitar parts. What did you record that on? I take it from the title to this post not Garage Band.
— cw · Oct 8, 10:40 PM · #
Tony: you’re on a boat! Never listened to the record at sea. I wonder which track will resonate most. And that’s my ‘sense of humor’, cw. No garage…no band…but all of it recorded on GarageBand.
— James · Oct 8, 11:46 PM · #
Not on a boat at this moment. At this moment I am sitting at my kitchen table.
I am sailing from New York to the Eastern Carrib in a couple of weeks or so (with a stereo that works, and your tunes.) If you’re interested, posts about me and boats and the ongoing struggle to find courage:
The Lure of the Sea…
Bob’s Your Uncle
Have you read Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage ? I can’t recommend it enough. If you go googling it, don’t be put off by all the bizz school management theory types that have tried to make it their own.
— Tony Comstock · Oct 9, 12:14 AM · #
“And that’s my ‘sense of humor’, cw.”
Pointy.
— cw · Oct 9, 12:29 AM · #
My struggle is to justify trusting myself; to earn a happiness that is in my grasp. That is why I had to decline.
Good luck on your journey, but . . . never my books.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Oct 9, 05:06 AM · #
“My struggle is to justify trusting myself; to earn a happiness that is in my grasp. That is why I had to decline.”
Same thing.
— Tony Comstock · Oct 9, 10:42 AM · #
Offered in good humor:
My Boss Was In an Indie Band Once
— Tony Comstock · Oct 10, 01:48 PM · #