Anybody who knows me at all knows I am a raving fan of Great Big Sea, the folk band from Canada. And anybody who pays attention to GBS’ various official online presences will know that they have a karaoke video contest in progress for their fans!
Last night, my partner and I uploaded our entry for the contest–and its related blooper reel! I have a full post about it on my personal blog over here. And if you want to see the videos directly, you can check ’em out here on my YouTube account!
If you read and liked Faerie Blood, please consider checking out the videos! Great Big Sea was a huge influence on the development of that book, and Christopher in particular. And stick around–’cause if we get onto the finalists list, determined by judges, then it’ll be up to popular vote to see who wins. And I’ll be calling on you all for help!
Did I mention the part where the prize for the contest is four spots on the band’s guest list to one of their forthcoming shows? Consider that mentioned! And always, folks, I thank you for your support! :D
(Not crossposted anywhere, because if you follow me elsewhere, you’ll have seen me squeeing about this already! And once the contest is over, I swear I’ll get back to working on Bone Walker!)
On behalf of my jamming group, I now present to you “Nothing But a Song”, as performed by Twelve Good Measures, featuring Crime and the Forces of Evil!
Now comes the waiting for the entry round to close–and after that, the selection of finalists! Keep your fingers crossed that our vid will make the cut, people! ‘Cause if it does, I will be shamelessly, and I DO MEAN SHAMELESSLY, campaigning for your support. I mentioned the part where the grand prize of this shindig is four spots on the band’s guest list at a show of the winner’s choice, right?
Remember, folks, a vote for Twelve Good Measures is a vote for my head exploding RIGHT OFF MY SHOULDERS with squee. Because proximity to Alan Doyle will do that. I have experienced it before and lived to tell the tale!
And oh yes, we’ve got more. Oh my yes. Here, have lulz to go with your contest video!
I’d call this a Special Edition Jam Report, except we didn’t actually Jam. Still, though, we had a good number of the Murkjammers present today for the conclusion of our video shooting for our submission to the Great Big Sea Karaoke Contest! In addition to and myself, we had , , and , with surprise bonus as Jareth the Goblin King!
Dara has been a GODDESS for this effort, people. I had a few initial ideas for the script, sure, but the visual and sound and general arrangement of shots, not to mention the technical work of actually shooting said shots with her digital camera? That’s ALL been on her. Really, my contribution to this whole shebang has pretty much ‘sing lead and yoink video snippets into iMovie’.
Many thanks must also be given to Meems for primary wardrobe contribution, in order to build a shot which will remain unidentified until the video goes live. But trust me, you’ll know the shot when you see it. ;> Ellen and Glenn also contributed a few wardrobe bits, as did . Separate kudos to Glenn for shooting assistance both yesterday and today, and Ellen and Meems and Glenn all together for prop and script wrangling!
has also come through marvelously, both with initially pointing me at iMovie as the tool to use to pull all this together, AND with building us credits in Flash that I can plug in at the tail end of the video.
And finally, thanks to Torrey for going to the trouble to costume up very nicely for what will be a pretty short shot, in the eventual shipping product.
Now comes the editing like mad in iMovie! We’ll get this done as fast as we can, y’all, and we look very much forward to showing you the final video!
I would be quite remiss if I didn’t post about the fun , , , , and I have been having putting together the audio track for our contribution to the GBS contest in progress!
And by “audio track” I mean “actual audio track”, not just whatever audio Dara’s digital camera might pick up. Dara’s already got considerable experience recording and engineering herself for Crime and the Forces of Evil, and she is pulling out all the stops doing it for this. She’s also got considerable experience with her own singing work, and she’s been cramming that into my and Glenn’s brains, too!
Props must be given to , who supplied Dara with an awesome set of vocal exercises for singing. Thanks, Andra! Dara spent a good chunk of Friday and yesterday working with me and then Glenn on these–and we discovered that HOLY JUMPING GODS I HAVE A FOUR OCTAVE RANGE. To wit, WHAT?!
I’m also discovering my first real appreciation for how much hard work actual, proper singing is, when you’re able to slide seamlessly between your chest voice and your head voice. This is a huge challenge for me right now, because the song we’re doing, “Nothing But a Song”, has a vocal break for me right smack dab in the middle of the verse. And given that I’m singing lead, we cannot, cannot have me sounding weak on the verses. (Fortunately, I’ve just heard Dara do some pretty awesome remixing of my current recorded tracks, so we may not have to re-record me after all. Here’s hoping!)
Meanwhile, Dara got a hell of an impressive bass rumble out of Glenn for the harmony in the bridge. Let me put this in perspective for you, y’all. Those of you who’ve followed me on LJ for a long time may remember that when we attended the 2003 Vancouver show, the first time we saw Murray Foster with the band, he totally blew us away with the stunning low note he hit on the final note of “General Taylor”.
I am not kidding when I say that what Dara got out of Glenn for low rumbly notes made her AND me have a similar “WHOA” reaction. So big, big props to both Glenn and Dara on this!
Today, Mimi and Callie came over to contribute higher-level harmonies. I wanted Meems’ harmony support on the choruses of the song, and she laid down a kickass tight harmony on top of what I was singing. It is very telling that in fact when I think of this song right now, Mimi’s harmony is even overriding The Doyle’s vocals in my brain. Seriously, do you guys know how hard it is to dislodge Alan Doyle’s singing from my brain? That there is a mighty achievement. MIGHTY, I tell you!
Then Meems and Callie both threw in some very, very nice high harmonies for the harmony brick we’re assembling for the bridge–both singing by themselves and then joining Dara and me on a four-person track where we sang the dominant notes of the bridge, split up by octaves with Meems and Callie on the high octave and Dara and me on the lower. If I do say so myself, I think Dara’s done a stupendous job filling out the aural spectrum of the bridge. And I can’t wait for you all to hear it!
Now I need to start figuring out how to put together a video that’ll be worthy of this Awesomeness. If anybody out there has iMovie or QuickTime tips to share, now would be a very, very good time to drop a comment!
There’s only one thing really that could have kept me from writing this up in a timely fashion–and that’s the simple fact that I’ve been working all weekend with on our entry for the Great Big Karaoke Contest! But I assure you, I’m still in a warm and fuzzy afterglow from Thursday’s awesome show.
This time around we didn’t get quite as much long, protracted banter as we did the last time the B’ys played the zoo–but we did get quite a bit of delicious Murray-focused banter, as well as sly remarks about how the sun beating down on the stage clearly meant the lads were going to have to start taking off some clothes. Compare and contrast this to how Lillian and Moira, ages 4 and 3, loudly demanded for me to take them up front to the dancing area and got me going around in circles with them singing “Donkey Riding” at the top of our lungs. That’s a Great Big Sea show for you, folks. Vast, and containing multitudes!
I didn’t get too many pics during the show since I’m still learning the fine art of how to do a picture on the iPhone that doesn’t suck–and then how to actually save it in the best possible format. However, I’m pretty happy with this one of my B’ys! As you can see I wasn’t too far back from the stage, with only a small number of fans in front of us.
Just got back from the zoo, you guys! Picoreview: delightful as always, especially up in the dancing area surrounded by fellow OKPers and other people ready, willing, and able to bounce like crazy along with our B’ys.
Huge shoutouts to , , , , her spouse Clint whose LJ I still can’t remember, , , , and coordinating me with and and to get the disparate parts of our group together!
Also huge shoutouts to , , and especially , who I haven’t seen and jammed with in TOO DAMNED LONG I SAY.
Even saw and greeted several OKPers besides sticckler: shelleyroberts, shoegirl, and loulabelle! And there was a lady whose name I didn’t get who was kind enough to compliment my singing as I was belting out harmony during “Chemical Worker’s Song”! Thank you, kind lady!
But! EXTRA DOUBLE AWESOME SHOUTOUTS back to for getting me a guitar pick from the hand of The Doyle Himself. She saw it fall and scarfed it, and presented it to me after the show! In return, I bought her a copy of Up, GBS’ third album! THANK YOU SARAH! <3 I shall play only Awesome Songs of Awesomeness with this pick!
Lastly it must be said that Alan is not only still pretty, but and I are in strong agreement that in fact, he gets prettier the longer a show continues. By the time he gets to “Ordinary Day”, he is stunningly gorgeous. Trufax! Scientifically proven!
There is of course a longer full show review post coming, but that’ll be tomorrow, after I have my brain back. Watch this space for the fully detailed squee!
T minus 7 days and counting until the B’ys are HERE for the Zoo show next week!
, , and I will be gathering Team Cascadia for a mighty gathering! and and and and and and and Clint (whose LJ I forget DOH) and are all joining us!
The Cascadian Vertical Movement team (which y’all may recall totally took the Gold medalthis past February) will also have the Junior Auxiliary of Lillian and Moira! I am looking forward to this with great, great glee. These are the children who beg me to play “Donkey Riding” on the Great Big DVD whenever they come over to my house, so I am VERY much anticipating the looks on their little faces when they realize holy crap Great Big Sea is real!
This is going to be huge, huge fun. And I’m taking that day off from work, too, so will be looking into a pre-show lunch and zoo thing of some sort! If you’re not directly involved with the herd I’m organizing but you are planning to be at the show, keep an eye out for me! Better yet, drop me a comment and let me know when and where you’ll be so I can keep an eye out for you, too!
*runs around in anticipatory circles* *practices her Vertical Movement* *puts SRS BZNZ consideration into what new swag to buy now that she’s dropped 25 pounds and TOTALLY needs a new, smaller GBS shirt*
Check this out, you guys: my beloved B’ys have announced a video karaoke contest! They are handing out instrumental tracks for three of the songs off the new album and telling people to get creative with video responses!
Anybody local want in on this with me? :D
(I wonder if it’d still count as karaoke if you actually learned the chords to the songs… *eyes guitar meaningfully*)
H/t to who spotted this even before I did!
ETA: My favorite part of the whole contest description: Do you ever sing along with GBS when no one is looking? Yes. YES I DO. Also when random passersby are looking, when an entire crowd of my fellow GBS fans are looking, when and I are busking, when I’m boinging down the street with my iPhone’s earbuds on, when I’m going past the fruit stand at Pike Place Market with the cute market men, when I’m browsing the shelves at bookstores, when I’m noodling around on the guitar, when I’m on the treadmill, and when I’m feeding the cats!
