Karaoke Anyone?

I tried "She Talks To Angels" (Black Crowes) the other night. It's gonna find it's way into my regular list of stuff.

 

I never have the confidence to sing unless I'm hammered. The last time I did was the first time since I was in college. We were at the bar in the hotel my friend had booked for her wedding guests. Someone suggested I sing, and I put in a ticket for White Wedding by Billy Idol. By the time I was up to sing, I was the only person from our group still there but the whole group from another wedding was there.. After I sang, I got a few compliments (and was too drunk to realize that maybe one or two of the ladies who complimented me might have been hoping for more than a "thanks,") and a few people bought me drinks. The next morning, I was hungover and made my brother drive home, and gave directions so bad that we ended up going from Philly to Connecticut by way of back roads to Fort Dix.

 

I rocked out "Black Horse & the Cherry Tree" and "Kiss Me Deadly" tonight. I got there late, so I thought I'd only get to sing once, but I ended up singing again as the last song of the night. Rockshow.

 

Love BBH&CT!

 

I was never a fan of karaoke, but that's because I'm so depressingly bad at it.

 

I've had sinus troubles lately, and was bummed that I couldn't get my voice as high as it needed to be for "99 Red Balloons" tonight. Luckily, I got to sing again (originally wasn't going to have time, but a bunch of people left), and I discovered I was the PERFECT level of raspy for "Holding Out for a Hero." I NAILED that shit. w00t.

 

I've got a buddy who has the gear and know-how to make a Karaoke song from a CD and a text file of the lyrics. Put together two discs to bring him when I have a chance to put the text files together:

Songs You Don't Know By Heart. Yet. #1: Trout Fishing in America - The Dead Egyptian Blues and Alien in my Nose; Tom Waits - Ice Cream Man, Chocolate Jesus, Jockey Full of Bourbon, Tango 'Til They're Sore, and Swordfishtrombone; Tom Lehrer - So Long, Mom; Randy Newman - Political Science; Rev. Horton Heat: Interracial Cowboy Homo Kind of Love; They Might Be Giants: 'Til My Head Falls Off and Rhythm Section Want Ad; Heather Nova - I Have the Touch (Peter Gabriel Cover); Jello Biafra & Mojo Nixon: Are Ya Drinkin' With Me, Jesus?; Jethro Tull - Slow Marching Band; Paul Simon - Graceland; Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter; REM - I Believe; The Gourds - Gin and Juice (Snoop Dogg cover); Dweezil Zappa - My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama (Covering Dad); Faith No More: Everything's Ruined.

Songs You Don't Know By Heart. Yet. #2:Old '97s - Doreen; Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - I'm Not Sleeping; The Bloodhound Gang - Jackass; Blue Öyster Cult - ETI and Astronomy; Boiled in Lead - The Mircoörganism; Bruce Dickinson - The Return of the King; The Burning Sensations - Pablo Picasso; Cake - Love You Madly and Pretty Pink Ribbon; Camper van Beethoven - Borderline; cKy - Plastic Plan; Corky and the Juice Pigs - Too Fat to Rock and Roll; The Cult - Sweet Soul Sister; The Cure - Hot, Hot, Hot!!!; David Bowie - Bang Bang; The Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia; Frank Zappa - Zombie Woof.

 

I know very few of those songs, but now I want to make my own karaoke CD. Hmmm.

 

how do you get the vocals out of the mix from the original cd so that you're singing it yourself and not just singing along?

 

Dunno, but He does.

 

wow, well if you remember, ask him and get back at me. i always thought a software program that would either convert or stream karaoke from your cd's or mp3 collection would be awesome. hell i don't even care about the text; i can remember the words.

 

So I started with Far Behind (candlebox) last night. Gotta say that song is a a lot of fun to sing. I get to be really aggressive, and the more aggressive I get with it, the better is sounds. It started my night off perfectly! I sang Tom Sawyer last night. That is an amazingly difficult song to sing, probably gonna try limelight tonight. I also sang Creep, War Pigs, and Under the Bridge. By the time I got to Under the Bridge, I was drunk, made it that much more fun!

 

I don't sing. Ever.

My fiancée loves karake, though. Cause she's Asian.

...

Bloody Asians.

 

Generally, vocals are present in both stereo channels and other instruments aren't. Subtract one channel from the other and play the song as mono. You can do this in Audacity, which is free, by selecting either Left or Right, inverting it throgh the menu (I forget which, it's an effect in there somewhere,) and setting playback to mono.

 

You I want to drink with.

 

Drunkaoke? Pirate Drunkaoke? Seriously my group had been the ones in the bar, in full on pirate gear, in April, for no reason. Let's do this shit. Whitewater rafting and microbrews during the day, karaoke at night, if you get to southern Oregon, I'm down!

 

I've never sang live Karaoke, but am dying to. I don't go to bars or establishments that offer it, so the opportunities have been slim. I have a few Karaoke CDs in my car and compete with my family to offer up the best version. When I am bored or just messing, I enjoy searching for instrumentals on Youtube; Favorites - the harmonies of CSNY, Evita, Phantom and anything, anything from Queen. I was a gay man in another life, for sure.

 

My regular Thursday night karaoke has been halted. It was a very stupid situation that somehow resulted in no more karaoke.

I did hear a rumor, however, that one of the local places does live band karaoke. I definitely need to look into that.

 

Yep. Something about being asian makes for karaoke freaks. My two best asian friends have either the equipment to run a mic thru her computer and TV and a free website that carries some songs; or a club quality setup and when she has parties pretty much everyone sings at least one song. It's so fun to watch the old folk get into stuff like 'Moon River' and old Broadway tunes with an accent.
But I also have done it with a bunch of drunk cycling friends and that's a blast too. I've been in band too long to have much of problem with pitch or nervousness, but it ain't a competition either. I swear, some of my gym bodies are so competitive that they won't sing after me. I wish I could tell them it's all in fun but I know they won't believe me.

Songs I choose? Stuff by Tracy Chapman, Sheryl Crow, Kelly Clarkson, Bonnie Tyler, Heart, you see where I'm going.

 

Contest season here. Looks like Pearl Jam - Black is my magic Bullet, with Zoot Suit Riot and Smooth being for when I need to move around a bit.
In the event that you find yourself in the Northern Virginia area, come out and cheer for me:
Sunday, 5/20 - Fast Eddie's Centreville (Venue final for Fairfax County Fair)
Wednesday 5/23 - Ditto (Dave's Automotive Final for FFx Co Fair)
Thursday 5/24 - Old Firehouse #3 in Old Fairfax (Venue Final etc etc)
Fryday 5/25 (Presumably) - Champps, Fair Oaks Mall (Venue Final)

All at about 9:30

Then Sunday 6/3, at Fast Eddie's Centreville at 9:30, I've got a half hour of stage time to sing about 6 tunes in a row.

Finally, assuming I win one of the finals above, I'll be singing at the Fairfax Fair on Saturday, 6/9

Incidentally, I am usually with the Mrs at Fast Eddies on Sunday nights and at Neighbors Restaurant in Vienna on Friday nights (though I'm staying in tonight).