The Holiday Song by Hosey
Hosey performing "The Holiday Song", originally written and performed by The Pixies. Click the little arrow on the right of the player if you deem this worthy of downloading. Song info and babbling after the jump...
Last post, I mentioned that there would be more exciting Hosey/Pixies-related news on the way, and here it is. For those just joining us: we were asked to play a set of Pixies covers after a promoter saw us performing "Cactus". We spent so much time learning and rehearsing the songs, as well as putting together drum tracks and sequences, that we thought it would be darn foolish not to record them properly for release. Of course "proper" is a relative term in the world of Hosey. In this case it means that we'd take the time to carefully record it in our little "home studio". You know, technically our apartment is mostly a studio and we just live in it. I suppose then that it is a "studio home".(Wait, that's already something else, too, right?)
Anyway! Here's our first track! It's unfinished, but you know how it is, I just had to get it out there for you, the people. "The Holiday Song" by The Pixies, one of my favorites... er, all Pixies songs are my favorite, specifically whichever one I'm currently listening to. The recording/mix isn't pristine, but I was more than pleasantly surprised. Especially as we recorded it with two cheap-ish $100 microphones* and a little elbow grease. For the final mix, these things should happen: Hughes will add backing vocals; I will tighten up my vocals; hopefully we can get our friend who sang at the show to come and lay down some backing vocals of the feminine variety... and I suppose that's it. I'll probably keep tweaking the mix until all the songs are finished and I can lay the whole project to rest.
Hey... you know, I think this is the first thing I've ever release of myself singing. There are samples of me singing on some Hosey tracks, but those are taken out of context and pretty manipulated and obscured. Well, as you can tell from this, I ain't much of singer, but I try. It's fun. I'm going to get better at it, you'll see.
I guess I'll give y'all the outline of the "Pixies Project" (I need a name for this thing). We're recording 5 songs, one from each album. "The Holiday Song", "Cactus", "Gouge Away", "Allison", and "Distance Equals Rate Times Time". Once I have a mix ready enough--we'll call it a demo--I'll post it here at the blog. These will probably be missing elements like backing vocals, reverb, proper compression, etc, but they'll be at the point I call "Sleep-Easy". Basically this is when a recording of a song is far enough along that if I somehow lost all the original instrument tracks, I would be happy with the final mix I currently have. What I'm saying is that if, heaven forbid, my computer exploded tomorrow and I lost all the master tracks for "The Holiday Song", I'd be satisfied with this version forever roaming the internet. However, it can still be better, so why not? It's not a real album, I don't ever have to be "done" with it. I love the digital age.
* The two mics were a Shure SM57 and a Shure Beta 52A, set in a variety of unmatched stereo pairings. High gain 45 degree convergence about 9 inches in front of the classical/spanish guitar. Mid gain 45 degree pairing for the acoustic guitar, 57 aimed at ~12th fret, 52A aimed ~bridge, both about 12 inches out. "Staggered" stereo pair for vocals, set for close and distant. I know I know! Stereo pairs should be matched. Buy me a mic, big guy.
