Californication Cover - 1 year progress video

You may well be right. Likewise I hadn’t heard a Metallica song until this course and I believe they have done quite well!

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Now we are back to that conversation about those formative years that shape one’s musical taste, perhaps based on what was current at the time or perhaps what friends shared. These days I suppose would depend on streaming platform playlists and recommendations, among other things.

I’ve had colleagues give me RHCP CDs (that dates when) and I found them to be one of those bands that I cherry-pick a few songs that I like but didn’t get into any of the albums start to finish.

As an aside, I’ve now seen more of Flea and the other band members than I ever needed. They appeared at at attempt to run a Woodstock-esque Festival, which ended extremely badly, badly enough to become a Netflix documentary. And watching the RHCP perform in the birth day suits was way too much exposure to the Band :laughing:

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To me RHCP are a hits band, a lot of their B sides are forgettable. But their hits are oh so good.

And yeah, they do like to take their clothes off. Don’t let that take away from the music though, just look away and listen :rofl:.

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Makes sense. And I also assume that when you mention B sides, we are now talking about Singles, rather than the albums from which the Singles come. Perhaps a band that I’d enjoy a Greatest Hits compilation.

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To me 90% of tracks on Californication and BTW albums plus maybe 80% of Stadium Arcadium are hits then :laughing:

From B side if you are literal I don’t know many, although two comes to mind and one from B side that after all became a big hit:

Although it was not featured on the record[1] and was used as a B-side on the singles “Give It Away” and “Under the Bridge”,[2] “Soul to Squeeze” was later released as a single in 1993.[3] The song was included in the Coneheads film soundtrack.[4] “Soul to Squeeze” was eventually re-released for the 2003 Greatest Hits album.[5] It can also be found on the band’s Live Rare Remix Box and The Plasma Shaft.

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Hi JK,
Congratulations on this 1 year anniversary :partying_face: :bouquet: :champagne: :beverage_box:,…
You are going well…quiet and calm…like a rocket :sunglasses: :clap:
Loved the camera… :sunglasses:
Greetings,…

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@DavidP @adi_mrok I don’t think I used B sides properly… I meant the non-single album tracks. I figured Adrian would love them all as a mega fan :rofl:. Their greatest hits album is very good. It’s all opinion, that’s why I said “to me” they’re a hits band, and damn they have a lot of hits. Multiple per album (at least their older albums, not their newer stuff).

And yeah, Soul to Squeeze is an awesome song and should have been a single. I think they later did release it as a single when their greatest hits was released.

Thanks Rogier, it’s been a thrilling ride and still a long journey ahead… the rest of my life! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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The songs that were on the albums were called A sides on the singles. B Sides were normally the songs on the singles that were not on the albums or alternative versions of the A sides. Speaking of B Sides did you know Hound Dog by Elvis was a B Side?

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Outstanding JK, if I saw that performance from a live cover band I would not be disappointed.

Everybody else has already said it, but I will add my voice anyway: you can be very proud of having accomplished this level of playing in 12 months. You got a song from “dreamer” all the way up to a performance grade. That’s got to be satisfying. Way to go.

You’re about 7 months ahead of me, so this gives me something to aim for :wink:

My only feedback is I thought your playing was a little quiet in the mix compared to the backing track, especially in the intro and verse 1.

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@direvus Thanks Brendan, I appreciate the comment & checking the vid out. I’m quite happy with where I’m at, gotta keep at it learning new songs and skills though because I’m miles from where I want to be.

It’s been good to see your progress.

Thanks for your tip on the levels. My DAW/mixing usage is pretty limited, basically just enough to record and track and upload it. So I set the levels of my guitar vs backing track one time and that was it. With my guitar higher the pre-chorus strumming was way too dominant and I had to bring it down. I thought about looking at changing volume level throughout the track and decided I couldn’t be bothered yet :rofl:. Settled on what I thought was an OK medium.

Makes sense, JK. I guess off an album you’d have the song(s) for release as the A sides of the singles, to get airplay on radio (back in the day) and promote the album, then the flip side, the B side, of the single since the physical vinyl had two sides, and the rest. And the critique of the album may include judgement of the rest of the songs, how many ‘good songs’ (somewhat subjective) vs filler songs.

I just checked my iPod (yeah, I’m that generation that loves the Classic iPod) and have a Greatest Hits album. Been a while and suspect I would listen to some songs and hit ‘skip’ on others. Not being a big fan of the band.

I often reflect on how challenging it is as a band or artist that becomes as successful as RHCP, and continues to record and perform for a long period of time. Being able to avoid becoming formulaic, evolving and developing creatively, maintaining a fan base. That cannot be easy. Often can lead to what you said, that love for the older albums and perhaps not producing work that appeals as one ages.

If I reflect on a band of which I’d be a ‘mega fan’, The Stones, then I’d say they produced 4 great albums, a few good albums, a bunch of poor albums, and survived for 60 years on the back of a catalog of great songs, even some of the poorer albums still produced the odd great song, and the live shows. But hey, how many bands produce even one album that may be objectively considered great (maybe I am not objective about the bands I love most).

I do love to talk about music as much as I love being able to make a little music myself :joy:

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JK, it was great!
I can’t even believe that this is your progress in just one year. A wonderful playing and video on top. There are slight roughness in places, but Adrian has already explained everything. I want to repeat that for a one-year experience, this is an amazing performance!
Btw, a very beautiful tele and cool sound!
Keep on rocking,
Leo

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Great job JK, awesome progress for 1 year in.

And that’s a great looking and sounding guitar.

Well done…

Rod.

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Just watched your vid and left a comment there!! Congrats on your progress and nice song choice!! Having “dreamer” songs are a good way to force ourselves to improve!

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@crocodile1 @RodC @Adaltro Thanks all for checking it out and the feedback. Yep a bit rough in spots, I think that will take years of practice to sort out :smiley:

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So few bands get hits, and even those that get multiple hits can’t keep pumping them out over years. Maybe their songs are still good but the public wants something different, and just the key fans stick around.

My wife and I were listening to a one-hit-wonder playlist on Spotify the other day. Bands that had just one mega hit. There can be a stigma around that. Some of the bands we were fans of though, and have listened to a lot of their less popular songs. It should be a great thing to even have a mega hit at all - how great to have recorded a song that enters popular culture around the world.

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Nicely done! I really like two cameras idea :slight_smile:

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:+1: Wow that was awesome.!! Playing for a year and your dreamer song sounds like that! That gives me hope. Nice video editing how did you record the audio? Sounded really nice. Your GoPro angle was cool that seems like it was a pain to set up and did your guitar feel weird with it mounted on the neck And take a lot of getting used to. But it was cool gave me the live feel.

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Thanks @JasonBuk, I’ve got a few new dreamer songs that are a LOT more complicated to work on now. :smiley:.

My audio setup for that one was Guitar → Fender GTX50 Mustang Amp → XLR Line Out to Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and recorded in Ableton Live. The Mustang is a modelling amp, I had it set to model a Fender Twin Reverb amp with some Large Hall reverb. No pedals (or simulated pedals). I didn’t apply any effects in Ableton, so it’s basically just amp & guitar sound. I had the backing track in ableton and set up a count-in so I could start playing right at the beginning of the track. I cut the count-in from the final though.

The GoPro felt SUPER weird on the neck, When I first put it on I couldn’t play properly, the neck kept diving. I had to pin the guitar to my body with my right arm.

Editing was super easy. I put my phone vid + GoPro + audio track into Cyberlink PowerDirector it it auto-synced up the tracks by audio, then I just cut between them by clicking the cameras in real time. First time I’d done it, I thought it would be harder.

Cheers Radek. I stole the two camera idea from one of @Rumil’s videos and the GoPro idea from some youtubers I saw :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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